Louis Vuitton’s Arnault surpasses Bezos to become world’s richest person

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Bernard Arnault, the chief of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), has surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person. According to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, the French billionaire’s net worth stood at $199.1 billion as on August 5. The Amazon founder’s real time net worth was $193.8 billion, followed by SpaceX founder Elon Musk at $184.7 billion.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is at the 12th spot with a net worth of $79.7 billion.

Arnault’s journey to the top

Arnault (72) is the Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) which manages 70 luxury brands. Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Tiffany & Co, Stella McCartney, Gucci, Christian Dior, and Givenchy are some among them.

Earlier this year, LVMH completed a deal for American jeweller Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever, NDTV reported. The acquisition leapfrogged Arnault to become the richest person in the world.

Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List is a dynamic one as the pecking order changes in tune with the stock price movements. For example, according to media reports, the French tycoon has led the list of the world’s wealthiest people earlier in December 2019, January 2020, May 2021, and July 2021. According to Bloomberg, he had spent $538 million buying shares of the world’s largest luxury goods company in recent months.

Arnault started his career at his father’s construction company Ferret-Savinel. He used $15 million from the family business to buy Christian Dior in 1985, says Forbes.

Bezos lost the world’s richest person tag on Forbes real-time billionaires list despite Amazon thriving during Covid-19 pandemic. Amazon’s revenue grew by 38% in 2020 to $386 billion as the company saw a spike in online purchases from people staying at home due to Covid-19 restrictions, reported the Hindustan Times.

Musk at third spot with $185.5 billion net worth, was the world’s richest person once.

The world’s top 10 billionaires include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, and Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.