Elon Musk is no longer the richest person in the world, says Forbes
Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no longer the richest person in the world, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List. The CEO and chairman of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Bernard Arnault, has claimed the top spot.
Musk and Arnault were trading places for world’s richest person late last week after a dip in Tesla stock sent Musk’s net worth down. But at the close of Monday trading, Tesla stock was still down and the divide between the vast wealth of these two men widened.
As of press time, Arnault is estimated to have a net worth of $191.4 billion, while Musk sits at $183.7 billion (all U.S. dollars).
Tesla’s shares have been dropping since mid-September, a descent that has accelerated since Musk acquired Twitter. In order to raise the $44 billion necessary to buy the platform, Musk sold off Tesla stock — the source of the majority of his wealth.
The final blow for Musk’s time at the top of the rich list was dealt at the end of Monday, when Tesla shares dipped 6.3 per cent, CNBC reported.
Meanwhile, Arnault’s LVMH has seen a modest drop in shares, just 1.5 per cent in 2022. Demand for luxury goods remains stable, and LVMH dominates in that market. The conglomerate’s brands include Christian Dior, Sephora, Fendi, Tiffany & Co. and Marc Jacobs, among many others.
Arnault owns about 60 per cent of LVMH’s voting shares through family trusts and holdings, according to SEC filings.
Musk owns 14.11 per cent of Tesla’s shares, CNBC reported, and 40 per cent of SpaceX shares.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index still lists Musk as the world’s richest person. The outlet uses a different methodology than Forbes, and lists Musk’s net worth as $168 billion compared with Arnault’s $167 billion.
On Monday’s dip in Tesla stock, Forbes quoted Miller Tabak’s chief market strategist Matt Maley as saying that the company “cut prices in China, so that’s not helping the stock.”
But Maley added, “the big problem is that many investors have lost some confidence in Tesla because Musk is being forced to focus so much of his attention on Twitter.”
“There was also a negative article in the Heard on the Street column in the WSJ, so that seems to be the main reason for today’s decline,” Maley told Forbes.
“Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain” ran in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The article argued that “even after a roughly 50% decline this year, the electric-vehicle pioneer’s shares price in an unusual level of industry dominance.”
by Global News
