Bernard Arnault

Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH, surpassed Twitter owner Elon Musk on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Tuesday, ...

In his quest to stay under the radar, Arnault said in October that LVMH sold its private jet. He returned to France and made his foray into luxury goods in 1984, when he took over Boussac Saint-Freres, the bankrupt textile group that owned a gem: Christian Dior. He went on to work at the family business, Ferret Savinel, which focused on industrial construction, before moving in 1981 to the U.S., where he ventured into property development. Paris-based LVMH generated €64 billion ($68 billion) in sales last year, a sharp rebound from the depths of the pandemic in 2020. Never before has anyone from France—or Europe as a whole—laid claim to having the largest fortune on the planet. While weakening markets have also taken a bite out of Arnault’s wealth this year—his fortune is down about $7.2 billion in 2022—he’s fared better than the tech billionaires who dominate the world’s rich list.

Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, has just become the first European to top Bloomberg's list of the world's richest people, ...

He has been chairman and CEO of the company ever since. Arnault bought control of the group, returning it to profitability and embarking on a strategy to develop the world’s leading luxury goods company. Arnault has long held the title of Europe’s richest person, but the 73-year old keeps a much lower profile than Musk and isn’t personally active on any major social media platforms. Still, he is in no imminent danger of falling further down the list: His fortune remains comfortably bigger than that of Indian industrialist Gautam Adani ($125 billion) and Amazon [(AMZN)](https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AMZN&source=story_quote_link) founder Jeff Bezos ($116 billion), who rank third and fourth on Bloomberg’s list. Arnault had already ousted Musk from the top spot on Forbes’ list of [“Real Time Billionaires”](https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#22b1dd5c3d78) last week. LVMH has a market value of €362.4 billion ($386 billion). Six years later, he got wind that the French government was looking for a new investor to take over Boussac Saint-Freres. He began his career in the family-owned construction company, Ferret-Savinel, becoming chairman in 1978 after successive promotions. “In the process, he reinvigorated Christian Dior as the cornerstone of the new organization,” according to a biography on the LVMH website. Musk’s purchase of Twitter The luxury market has remained relatively steady this year, even as surging inflation has led less-affluent shoppers to change their spending habits. [Bernard Arnault](https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/15/investing/arnault-mustier-spac-tikehau-capital/index.html), the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH [(LVMHF)](https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=LVMHF&source=story_quote_link), has just become the first European to top Bloomberg’s list of the world’s richest people, relegating [Elon Musk](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/07/business/elon-musk-wealth/index.html#:~:text=Despite%20the%20losses%2C%20Musk%20is,net%20worth%20of%20%24171%20billion.) to second place.

Luxury goods mogul Bernard Arnault is now the richest man in the world, bumping Tesla CEO Elon Musk down to the second spot, according to the Bloomberg ...