The recent stock slump in Tesla has hurt its shareholders. First among them is
Elon Musk,
who looks to have lost his place as the world’s richest man as a result of the fall.
Musk lost more than $18 billion in net worth as
Tesla
shares suffered a 12% fall last Thursday following the electric-vehicle company’s disappointing earnings. That puts his personal fortune at $204.5 billion, according to Forbes.
According to the Forbes list of billionaires, Musk loses the top spot to Bernard Arnault, who it says is worth $207.8 billion.
Arnault is the founder, chair, and CEO of
LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton,
a conglomerate covering fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, and wines and spirits. Its brands include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Sephora, Hennessy, and Tiffany. The 74-year-old has built the company up via series of acquisitions to make it the dominant luxury-goods company in the world.
While Tesla’s earnings hurt the stock—and Musk’s wealth—it wasn’t the sole cause of the change. LVMH shares rose 13% on the company’s fourth-quarter report last Friday. The luxury company’s sales surged 10% in the fourth quarter, to €23.9 billion ($26 billion), and its full-year revenue reached all-time highs of €86.2 billion.
Measuring personal wealth isn’t an exact science due to ownership of various privately held assets, including Musk’s stakes in SpaceX and social-media platform X, formerly Twitter. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk still tops the list with $199 billion, and is followed by
Amazon.com
founder Jeff Bezos and his $184 billion fortune. The Bloomberg Index puts Arnault’s wealth at $183 billion.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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