The billionaire chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods company overseeing brands such as Louis Vuitton and Sephora, Bernard Arnault, has become the world’s wealthiest individual, surpassing Elon Musk.
Arnault and his family’s net worth experienced a remarkable increase to $207.8 billion on Friday, marking a $23.6 billion surge, outpacing Musk’s $204.5 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
The shift in rankings occurred as Musk faced challenges with Tesla in the stock market, witnessing a 13% drop on Thursday, leading to a decrease of over $18 billion in his net worth.
Simultaneously, LVMH shares surged on Friday, rising over 13% by 11 a.m., propelled by reports of robust sales performance.
LVMH’s market cap reached $388.8 billion on Friday, trailing Tesla’s $586.14 billion market cap.
Notably, in 2021, LVMH made a significant acquisition by purchasing Tiffany & Co. for nearly $16 billion, marking it as the largest luxury brand acquisition to date.
Arnault’s holding company Agache supports Aglaé Ventures, a venture capital firm known for investments in companies like Netflix and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Bernard Arnault, aged 74, had previously surpassed Musk in wealth in December.