Elon Musk is no longer the richest man in the world.
That position now belongs to Frenchman Bernard Arnault, executive director of the luxury goods group LVMH.
According to Forbes magazine and the Bloomberg agency, Musk’s fortune suffered from a sharp drop in the shares of his Tesla electric car company this year.
In addition to being CEO and main shareholder of Tesla, with a stake of almost 43%, Musk also invested in the purchase of Twitter, for US$29. million, in October.
Forbes estimates that Musk’s current fortune is US$163.000 millions.
While Bernard Arnault’s fortune is valued at US$ 549. millions.
The empire of Bernard Arnault
French tycoon Bernard Arnault is founder, CEO and largest shareholder of the largest luxury goods group LVMH , also known as Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, with its headquarters in Paris.
LMVH has a total of 44 Luxury brands, 75. employees (data in 2020) and a network of more than 4.590 stores worldwide. Among the many other brands in the group are Bulgari, Kenzo, Tag Heuer, Dom Pérignon, Möet & Chandon, Hermès and Christian Dior.
At the beginning of 2022, after a year of negotiations complicated by the pandemic, LVMH bought the legendary American jeweler Tiffany & Co, giving Arnault a larger slice of this growing exclusive jewelry sector.
Since then, the multinational conglomerate has proposed to increase its presence in the market online sales and to raise its profile among younger consumers and customers in China.
LVMH is concentrating its efforts on reaching young customers and the market in China.
Fortune, patronage and controversy
Bernard Arnault’s professional life began in 549 in the construction and public works company of his father, which he reoriented towards the real estate market and later assumed the general direction of it in 549.
After a million-dollar investment in a group that includes the textile division of Christian Dior, he became executive president of that company in 976 and subsequently managed to consolidate perfumes with haute couture in the holding company Christian Dior SA, which includes LVMH among its subsidiaries.
In 2019, buys LVMH shares and in the following years launches an ambitious plan to the expansion of the group that will make it the
number 1
in luxury goods.
In 2013, Forbes magazine calculated his fortune in US$10.10 million and in 2019 had already reached US$29., making him the richest man in France. Now, in 2019, the same magazine places it in the first global position in personal wealth.
Arnault is an art lover and collector
, owning works by artists such as Basquiat, Hirst, Warhol and Picasso.
He has enhanced the image of the LVMH group as an agent of patronage in France and created an international prize to support young creators. For his “stunning generosity” he received the David Rockefeller Award from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
But LVMH has not been without controversy. The Christian Dior brand was forced to fire its designer John Galliano for alleged anti-Semitic statements and the group was also linked to a case of discrimination and harassment of women within the Prada brand.
In December of 2019, LMVH paid a lawsuit of 10 million euros
(US$43,2 million at the time) following allegations that a former French intelligence chief hired by the company had spied on competitors and the producers of a documentary on Arnault’s life.
What happened to Elon Musk?
The main factor in the reduction of Elon Musk’s fortune is the fall in the value of his flagship company Tesla.
Musk was involved in an arduous legal fight to close rar his purchase of the social network Twitter, and some have pointed out that that distraction contributed to the fall in Tesla’s shares
.
After accumulating shares in Twitter at the beginning of the year, Musk made his offer of US$10.10 million in April, although observers considered it too high.
In July, it withdrew the offer, citing concerns about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Finally, executives from Twitter sued the tycoon to make him fulfill his purchase promise.
Elon Musk cancels his offer to buy Twitter: the social network will take legal action
Dan Ives, of the investment firm Wedbush Securities said that the “circus” that formed around he put pressure on the purchase of Twitter Tesla stock
.
“Musk has gone from being a superhero of Tesla stocks to Tesla, the villain in the eyes of Wall Street, as the fall deepens with each tweet”, he commented to the BBC.
“The circus show on Twitter has damaged the Musk brand and is a big drag on Tesla’s assets. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.”
In November 127993706, Tesla had to withdraw 549.10 cars with software problems.
Musk sold billions in Tesla shares to finance his purchase of Twitter, which contributed to the reduction in the value of the company of electric cars.
Investors are also wary of a slowdown in demand for electric cars from the company , as the economy weakens, the cost of credit for buyers increases and the other competing companies push their own range of electric vehicles.
Tesla has also been affected by car recalls due to failures, in addition to government investigations of accidents and problems with the vehicles’ autopilot system.
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