Bernard Arnault pips Jeff Bezos become world’s richest person

Bernard Arnault, the chairperson and chief executive of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is now the world’s richest person. Bernard Arnault pipped Jeff Bezos after the Amazon founder’s net worth fell $13.9 billion in a day.

Before this, Bernard Arnault led the list of the world’s wealthiest people in December 2019, January 2020, May 2021 and July 2021. Arnault holds a net worth of $198.9 billion compared to Jeff Bezos’ $194.9 billion and Tesla owner Elon Musk’s $185.5 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List on Friday.

Jeff Bezos’ net worth tanked by $590 million and stands at $194.9 billion whereas Musk has a net worth of $184.7 billion, the Forbes’ list showed.

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Bernard Arnault, the 72-year old French billionaire, heads the world’s leading fashion brand Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). LVMH oversees an empire of 70 brands including Givenchy, Guerlain, Marc Jacobs, Sephora, Tiffany & Co, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Loro Piana, Nicholas Kirkwood, Thomas Pink, RM Williams, EDUN, Moynat, and Donna Karen. It also includes TAG Heuer, De Beers and Bulgari. Arnault owns a 96.5 per cent stake in Christian Dior, which controls 41 per cent of LVMH.

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Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List showed Elon Musk is followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates at $132.0 billion, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at $130.6 billion, Google co-founders Larry Page at $116.5 billion and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at $116.4 billion and Sergey Brin at $112.8 billion. Warren Buffet’s net worth has now come down to $101.6 billion, according to the Forbes list.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairperson Mukesh Ambani is ranked 12th on this list with a net worth of $79.8 billion. On the other hand, Gautam Adani fell seven places to the 23rd spot and currently has a net worth of $55.6 billion and HCL Technologies’ founder Shiv Nadar’s net worth rose to $25.8 billion, Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List also showed.