Mr Elon Musk, once worth as much as $US340 billion ($496 billion), has been overtaken at the top spot by Bernard Arnault the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH.
According to both Forbes and Bloomberg, Mr Musk has been overtaken at the top spot by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH.
Mr Musk chief executive and the largest shareholder in Tesla has seen his fortune tumble by more than $US100 billion since January to $US163.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr Musk is now worth about $178bn (£152bn).
Meanwhile, Bernard Arnault has a value of $188bn, whose wealth largely derives from his 48 per cent ownership of fashion giant LVMH.
Mr Musk’s fall from atop the rankings — the first time that’s happened since he was No. 2 in September 2021 — caps a tumultuous year for the frenetic billionaire.
He shocked the world in April with his offer to take Twitter private for $US44 billion, in a brazen display of how the wealthiest individuals could wield their massive fortunes.
But his agreement coincided with the Federal Reserve and other central banks embarking on their most aggressive round of monetary tightening in a generation, slashing the valuations of high-flying companies like Mr Musk’s Tesla. The electric carmaker’s stock is down more than 50 per cent this year.
Mr Musk tried for months to get out of the Twitter deal but failed. He offloaded more than $US15 billion in Tesla shares — about $US8.5 billion in April, then another $US6.9 billion in August — to raise enough cash to fund the purchase.
Once he finalised the Twitter acquisition in October, the Bloomberg wealth index knocked $US10 billion from his fortune, reflecting that shares of similar businesses have slumped since he made his bid.
Mr Musk has pledged to turn around the social media platform, but he faces several challenges — some of his own making. He blasted Apple and threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store at a time when other companies were already pulling their advertising from the site.
Meanwhile, Twitter is poised to face annual interest costs that exceed a measure of its earnings for all of 2021. Mr Musk’s bankers are considering providing him with new margin loans backed by Tesla stock to replace some of the high-interest debt he layered on Twitter, Bloomberg News reported.
As Tesla’s stock price slides, Mr Musk’s stake in Space Exploration Technologies has become an increasingly important part of his fortune. It’s worth $US47 billion, based on the June funding round that valued the private company at about $US125 billion.
SpaceX is offering to sell insider shares at a price that would raise the closely held company’s valuation to about $US140 billion, Bloomberg News reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter. That higher value could lift his net worth, but it’s not yet being used by Bloomberg’s wealth index because it’s unclear whether any shares have traded so far and the size of the transactions.
Mr Arnault, the new richest person in the world, is drama-free in comparison to Mr Musk.
Mr Arnault has long been a mainstay near the top of the wealth rankings, but his fortune never grew at the exponential pace of US tech billionaires. Now his empire is holding up while Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin see their wealth hammered by rising interest rates.
Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s designer apparel, fine wines and retail business have benefited from pent-up demand unleashed when COVID-related shopping and travel restrictions were lifted in most countries. Mr Arnault’s brands cater to the affluent — from Christian Dior and Fendi to jewellers Bulgari and Tiffany, and champagne house Moet & Chandon.
