Elon Musk has officially been knocked off the top of Forbes’ annual “World’s Billionaire’s List,” and he is now the world’s second-richest billionaire.
Musk is now second to Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH. His net worth increased more than $50 billion in the past year to $211 billion.
Forbes explained that Musk’s wealth had fallen because his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, scared investors and sent Tesla stock sinking sharply last year.
Tesla gained much of those losses back this year but is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Forbes added that “Elon Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks” because Tesla shares are down 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. The magazine noted that SpaceX is a bright spot for Musk since its valuation has increased $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost the most amount of money of any billionaire on the list ($57 billion), knocking him down from the second position to third. The loss can be attributed to Amazon shares losing nearly 40% of their value last year
As for Arnault, Forbes said the Frenchman had a “banner year” in 2022 because of record-high profits at the luxury conglomerate, which comprises Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co. Shares of LVMH have climbed 25% over the past year and the patriarch has recently unveiled succession plans to his children.
Forbes on Tuesday said that the total number of billionaires on this year’s list fell to 2,640 (down from 2,668), marking the second-straight year of decline.