Elon Musk recaptured the title of world’s richest person this week amid a back-and-forth battle with French luxury goods mogul Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, as rebounding Tesla stock propelled the eccentric billionaire into the No. 1 seat.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is once again the world’s richest person.
GETTY IMAGESKEY FACTS
Musk’s astronomical net worth gained another $4.1 billion on Monday, according to Forbes’ calculations, boosting his net worth by more than 1.75% to a comfortable $240.7 billion, as of noon EDT.
The boost in valuation comes as Tesla’s stock climbs more than 2.5% to just over $266 Monday morning, rebounding from a sudden drop last week after announcing it will offer seven-year loan financing for new Tesla customers.
Musk’s net worth now tops Arnault, the CEO of luxury goods giant LVMH—which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany—after Arnault’s net worth took a dip on Monday, sinking more than 1% ($2.4 billion) to $234.9 billion, amid falling LVMH shares.
Musk lost the title of world’s richest person on Friday just days after he briefly recaptured it. He lost roughly $18 billion on Thursday due to Tesla’s sinking stock, which tumbled nearly 10% on the heels of an underwhelming quarterly earnings report.
TANGENT
Musk, who closed on a massive $44 billion acquisition for Twitter in October, unveiled a long-awaited rebrand of the social media platform on Sunday, changing the company’s logo from its iconic blue bird to the letter “X” and redirecting the domain X.com to the site—Musk has said the letter “X” has special meaning to him, using the letter for his space technology company and as a model of Tesla.
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$151.9 billion. That’s the real-time net worth of Amazon founder and former world’s richest person Jeff Bezos, the world’s third-richest person, behind Musk and Arnault. Bezos is followed by Oracle founder and former CEO Larry Ellison ($148.1 billion), Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($120.6 billion), Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet ($117.3 billion) and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ($104.9 billion).
SURPRISING FACT
Musk, 52, and Arnault, 74, met for lunch last month at a luxury hotel in Paris owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Arnault told French outlet Quotidien at the time he wanted to dine with Musk because he “[thinks] he is an exceptional entrepreneur.”
FURTHER READING
Elon Musk Directs X.com To Twitter, Plans To Ditch Twitter Bird (Forbes)
Elon Musk Loses Title Of World’s Richest Person As Tesla Stock Plummets (Forbes)
