Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman and CEO of global luxury goods company LVMH—the entity behind dozens of luxury goods brands like Louis Vuitton and Sephora—is now the richest man in the world, passing Elon Musk.
Arnault and his family’s net worth grew to $207.8 billion after a $23.6 billion increase on Friday, passing Musk’s $204.5 billion, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.
The news comes as Musk’s Tesla struggled in the stock market Thursday, dropping 13%, with Musk losing more than $18 billion in net worth.
Meanwhile, LVMH shares were soaring Friday, up over 13% as of 11 a.m. on the heels of news of strong sales.
The market cap of LVMH reached $388.8 billion on Friday, compared to Tesla’s $586.14 billion market cap.
Key Background
In 2021, LVMH acquired Tiffany & Co. for nearly $16 billion—considered the largest luxury brand acquisition ever. Arnault’s holding company Agache backs a venture capital firm called Aglaé Ventures, which Forbes reports invests in businesses like Netflix and ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok.
Arnault has five children who all work at LVMH. He recently appointed two of his sons to the LVMH board alongside two other children who were already on the board in a move to secure long-term family control.
