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Elon Musk Loses ‘The Richest Man’ Race: French Luxury Brand Tycoon Takes Over
After Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, the Tesla owner is the new billionaire that has lost the richest man spot, at least for briefly. According to reports from some mainstream media, Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH, has claimed the world’s richest man spot.
Musk’s Twitter saga, the controversy since his announcement of the giant’s takeover hasn’t done him good, say experts. The latest development saw a 4% decline in Tesla’s stock on Monday morning following Musk’s erratic tweeting over the weekend, a habit that cost him his favorite spot.
Investors reduced their holdings in Tesla earlier on November 8 due to concerns that Musk, the company’s CEO and largest shareholder, was more concerned with Twitter than with Tesla’s operations. Musk’s net worth as a result was less than $200 billion.
French Luxury Goods Tycoon Bernard Arnault Becomes The Richest Person In The World
The current decline would mean a reduction of his net worth by $7.4 billion after Tesla shares ended the day Monday down 6%. In the aftermath of the fall, Musk completed the day at an estimated $181.3 billion—$4.9 billion less than Bernard Arnault, worth an estimated $186.2 billion.
The shortfall, however, hasn’t prevented Mr. Musk from maintaining his control over Tesla, where he remains in the driver’s seat as the company’s chief executive and the top shareholder, with a reported stake of roughly 14%.
On Wednesday, Forbes estimated that Elon Musk was worth $178 billion (£152 billion), and Bernard Arnault, $188 billion. Likewise, the history of Arnault being the richest is not new; he had previously dethroned Musk as the top billionaire on Forbes’ “Real Time Billionaires” list.
Bernard Arnault was born in 1949 in northern France and graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique with a degree in engineering. According to the LVMH website, he worked for the Ferret Savinel family business before moving to the US in 1981 and beginning a career in real estate development.
As the chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the biggest luxury goods company in the world, Arnault is now well-known throughout the globe.
At the LVMH conglomerate, Bernard Arnault is in charge of Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and 70 other companies involved in the fashion and beauty industries. According to the LVMH website, the company also operates 5,500 stores worldwide and sells champagne, wine, spirits, fashion, leather goods, watches, jewelry, hotel stays, perfume, and cosmetics.
As per the latest reports, the richest man would use millions of dollars of his own money to purchase a bankrupt textile business owned by Christian Dio in the coming years.
Returning to Musk, the Tesla owner has taken on the role of micromanaging CEO since taking over Twitter. He has been tweeting frantically all during the process, which has given investors’ worries that the takeover would be a diversion more weight.
Unlike Tesla CEO, Arnault is not so active on social media creating no controversies which do him good. Mr. Arnault is also less vocal when it comes to politics compared to the outspoken Musk. Last Sunday, he stated in a tweet from last Sunday that “my pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.” Right on the next day, he tweeted again taunting Fauci, this time saying that “the woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters.”
Musk serves as the CEO of the rocket business SpaceX as well as the start-up Neuralink, which is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.
He established Space Exploration Technologies Corp (Space X) in 2002 with the express purpose of lowering space transportation costs to facilitate Mars colonization. The business produces several rocket engines, the Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, as well as Starlink communication satellites.
Also Read: Elon Musk Was Jeered Off Stage At A Dave Chappelle Performance
Despite the difficulties, experts support Musk because they believe he may use Tesla stock-backed personal margin loans to replace some of Twitter’s debt. Musk reclaimed a first place on Friday as Tesla shares increased by 3% to close out a challenging week down 8%. He was reportedly worth between $1.55 and $1.5 billion more than Arnault going into the weekend.
Investors, on the other hand, are concerned that demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles will slow as the economy weakens, higher borrowing costs dissuade buyers, and other companies expand their electric vehicle offerings.
Tesla recalled more than 321,000 vehicles in the United States last month because tail lights failed to light up infrequently, according to a public filing. The company was the subject of a criminal investigation in the United States back in October for claims that its electric vehicles can drive themselves.
Despite all the other commotion, perhaps Musk will be able to turn Tesla around in the end – that’s what history says.
