Meet Bernard Arnault, world's richest man as per Forbes Billionaires List 2023 with a net worth of Rs 17 lakh crores

Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods company LVMH, has surpassed Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person, according to Forbes' World’s Billionaires List 2023. Arnault’s net worth increased by $50 billion to $211 billion, while Musk’s net worth slipped by about $39 billion to $180 billion. Arnault and Musk have often traded places on the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list. This is the first time a French citizen has led the World’s Billionaires ranking since its inception in 1987.

Forbes credited Arnault's record sales and profits that have driven shares of LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tiffany, to new heights. . Arnault outperformed every other billionaire on the planet last year, increasing his wealth by $53 billion as a result of an 18 per cent increase in the LVMH stock.

In contrast, Musk, who was ranked first, last year, is now ranked second. Following the announcement of his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in April 2022, shares of his electric car company Tesla dropped by close to 50 per cent, in part as a result of investor worries about Musk taking on yet another CEO position and worries about the $23 billion of Tesla stock he sold to help finance the deal. Musk is still valued $39 billion despite his private spaceflight company SpaceX reaching new valuation heights.

Forbes claims that Musk's wealth loss is only surpassed by that of Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in the world with a net worth of $114 billion. Due to a 38 per cent drop in the value of the e-commerce giant's shares, he is $57 billion poorer today than in 2022. With a net worth of $107 billion, co-founder of the software behemoth Oracle Larry Ellison is ranked No. 4, while investing guru Warren Buffett is ranked No. 5 globally with a net worth of $106 billion.

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