Forbes has announced that Elon Musk is no longer at the top of their annual "World's Billionaire's List," with Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, taking the top spot. Musk is now ranked as the second-richest billionaire, worth an estimated $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than the previous year. Musk's wealth decline is attributed to his $44 billion Twitter purchase, which was funded by Tesla shares and caused investors to worry, leading to a sharp decline in Tesla's stock last year.
While Tesla has gained much of those losses back this year, it is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter. Forbes noted that Musk's tweets had played a role in his declining position, as Tesla shares have fallen 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. However, SpaceX's valuation has increased by $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year, which is a bright spot for the billionaire.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, suffered the biggest loss among all billionaires on the Forbes list, amounting to $57 billion. This loss caused him to drop from second place to third place on the list. The reason for his loss is attributed to Amazon shares falling almost 40% in value last year. Meanwhile, Bernard Arnault had a record-breaking year in 2022, as LVMH, the luxury conglomerate he chairs, reported record-high profits. The conglomerate includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tiffany & Co. Forbes noted that the number of billionaires on this year's list decreased to 2,640 from 2,668, marking the second consecutive year of decline.
Forbes senior editor of wealth, Chase Peterson-Withorn, commented that "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." Notably, over 250 individuals who appeared on last year's list did not make it to this year's list, including Kanye West, who lost his Adidas deal, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled FTX founder who lost 94% of his wealth in one day.