Forbes’ Annual “World’s Billionaires List” Dethrones Elon Musk as the World’s Richest Person

Forbes’ annual “World’s Billionaires List” has officially dethroned Elon Musk from the top of the list.

With an estimated $180 billion in wealth, the Tesla and Twitter CEO is now the second-richest billionaire, down $39 billion from the previous year. Bernard Arnault, chairman of the French luxury goods giant LVMH, has been given the top spot. In the past year, his wealth increased to $211 billion, an increase of more than $50 billion.

Given Musk’s fluctuating position on the Forbes “Real-Time Billionaires” list, which is updated daily, for the past few months, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Arnault and he frequently switch places.

However, Tuesday’s list tracks his abundance every year. According to Forbes, Musk’s wealth had decreased as a result of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter last year, which was made possible by selling Tesla shares and alarmed investors. Tesla recovered quite a bit of those losses this year yet is still essentially lower than before Musk purchased Twitter.

That’s what Forbes said “Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks” since Tesla shares are down 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. According to the magazine, SpaceX is a bright spot for the billionaire because its valuation has increased by $13 billion to $140 billion in the past year.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, dropped from second to third place on the list after losing the most money of any billionaire ($57 billion). Amazon shares lost nearly 40% of their value last year, which is to blame for the loss.

With respect to Arnault, Forbes said the Frenchman had a “banner year” in 2022 in view of record-high benefits at the luxury aggregate, which contains Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co. Shares of LVMH have climbed 25% throughout the last year and the patriarch has recently revealed progression plans to his children.

According to Forbes, the total number of billionaires on the list this year decreased from 2,668 to 2,640, marking the second consecutive year of decline.

“It’s been another rare down year for the planet’s richest people,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes senior editor of wealth, in a release. “Nearly half the list is poorer than they were 12 months ago, but a lucky few are billions — or even tens of billions — of dollars richer.”

This year’s list did not include more than 250 people, including Kanye West, who lost his Adidas deal, and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who lost 94% of his wealth in a single day.