Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, known for overseeing numerous luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Sephora, has claimed the title of the world’s wealthiest person, surpassing Elon Musk.
KEY FACTS
According to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, Arnault and his family’s net worth expanded to $207.8 billion after a $23.6 billion increase on Friday, surpassing Musk’s $204.5 billion.
This development coincides with a challenging day for Musk’s Tesla in the stock market on Thursday, experiencing a 13% decline, resulting in Musk losing over $18 billion in net worth.
Conversely, LVMH shares witnessed significant growth on Friday, surging by over 13% as of 11 a.m., following reports of robust sales.
As of Friday, the market capitalization of LVMH reached $388.8 billion, in contrast to Tesla’s $586.14 billion market cap.
KEY BACKGROUND
In 2021, LVMH made a notable acquisition by purchasing Tiffany & Co. for nearly $16 billion, recognized as the largest luxury brand acquisition to date.
Arnault’s holding company, Agache, supports a venture capital firm named Aglaé Ventures, known for investing in businesses such as Netflix and ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok.
Arnault, who has five children actively engaged in LVMH, recently took a strategic step to secure long-term family control by appointing two sons to the LVMH board, joining two other children already serving on the board.