Bernard Arnault replaces Elon Musk as the world's richest man

Tesla founder and Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk is no longer the world's richest man after Tesla shares fell 4 per cent on Monday. Musk lost about $7.4 billion (around Rs 700 crore) in Tesla shares. He was taken over by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH, according to the world's real-time billionaires list.

According to a Forbes report, Musk's current worth as of Wednesday (Tuesday, 10:15 p.m. in New York) is $176.8 billion, which is $11.8 billion lesser than Bernard Arnault's worth, an estimated $188.2 billion. Musk's net worth is currently seeing a $4.5 billion drop, while Bernard Arnault and his family saw a $2.7 billion gain in the last two days.

Notably, the 51-year-old billionaire saw a sharp increase in his net worth from 2020 to 2022. In 2022, Musk's $24.6 billion net worth reached $340 billion, as recorded by the Billionaires Wealth Index. However, with the ongoing drift in the economy and Musk's entanglement in the Twitter deal, his fortune plummeted by around $176 billion, making him lose around Rs 2.5 billion daily. Elon Musk's net worth consists of his stock and the six companies he co-founded, i.e., Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, Twitter, Neuralink and others.

Speaking of Tesla's recent stock plunge, many experts suggest the stock took a hit as investors withdrew their confidence in the electric car leader. Musk, who is currently building Twitter, is said to have turned his attention away from his other businesses after closing the Twitter deal in October.

All about Bernard Arnault

Meanwhile, Arnault, the French businessman and chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy and chief executive of the Louis Vuitton group, heads the billionaires' chair. Bernard Arnault and his family own 70 companies, including Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Loewe, Loro Piana, Kenzo, Celine, Sephora, Princess Yachts, TAG Heuer, Bulgari, and Tiffany & Co., among other add up to his immense net worth of $188.6 billion.

Interestingly, Musk and Arnault were in a close fight for the number one spot on the billionaires' list. Arnault became the world's richest man last week, but his position was short-lived, and Musk took over his reign again in a day. This time though, the difference between his net worth is significant, and to win back the titles, Musk will need a raise of more than $12 billion.