LVMH owner Bernard Arnault pips Bezos, Musk to bag the top spot in billionaires list

Luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault has surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk to bag the top spot on Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List. Arnault's net worth rose by $482 million and currently stands at a jaw-dropping $199.2 billion. His net worth in April 2021 was $150 billion.

The 72-year old French billionaire heads the world’s leading fashion brand Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) which oversees an empire of 70 brands. These brands include Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Kenzo, Stella McCartney Fendi, Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Sephora.

LVMH completed an acquisition deal with the American jewellery brand Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion in January 2021, reported to be the biggest brand acquisition ever.  It also spent $3.2 billion in 2019 for luxury hospitality group Belmond, which owns or manages 46 hotels, river cruises, and trains. Bernard Arnault’s is a family-run empire as four out of his five kids—Frederic, Delphine, Antoine, and Alexandre work in the LVMH empire.

Jeff Bezos' net worth tanked by $590 million and stands at $193.8 billion whereas Musk, who is also a cryptocurrency enthusiast has a net worth of $184.7 billion, as per the Forbes' list. Elon Musk is followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates at $131.6 billion, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at $129.2 billion, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at $117.1 billion, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at $115.7 billion and $112 billion respectively. Veteran investor Warren Buffet's net worth came down to $101.3 billion after a fall of $897 million.

Reliance Industries chairperson Mukesh Ambani is ranked 12th on this list with a net worth of $81 billion. Gautam Adani, on the other hand, fell seven places to the 23rd spot and currently has a net worth of $53.7 billion. HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar’s net worth rose by $371 million to $25.7 billion.

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