The owner of luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton has reached the top ForbesA wealthy billionaire and ousted Tesla CEO Elon Musk from the top.
Forbes released its Rich List of 2,640 of the world’s richest billionaires, listing Bernard Arnault as the richest person in the world with a net worth of $211 billion (£169 billion).
Mr Arnault, who runs luxury goods brand LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany, topped the list for the first time. Last year, the businessman added $53bn (£43bn) to his fortune, giving him more gains than any other billionaire.
The number of billionaires fell by 28, while the total wealth of billionaires also fell by $500 billion to $12.2 trillion.
Notably, the new owner of Twitter, Mr. Musk, has dropped to second place after holding the top spot last year. He saw shares of his famed automaker Tesla fall nearly 50% after announcing a $44bn (£35bn) takeover of Twitter last April.
Musk’s loss was joined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who came third on the list with a net worth of $114 billion (£93 billion).
The fall in Amazon stock in 2022 left Bezos $57 billion poorer this year. fourth place ForbesThe list went to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, co-founder of the $107 billion software giant.
Music mogul Rihanna made the list for the second time after making the list Forbes List last year as the youngest self-made billionaire.
Reality star and beauty brand owner Kylie Jenner briefly held the title at the age of 23. Forbes withdrew the status after it was said that his financial records were misrepresented.
Rihanna, 35, has secured a whopping $1.4 billion (£1.12 billion) fortune, largely through her cosmetics brand Fenty and lingerie line Savage Fenty.
Other well-known musicians include Jay Z, who was the only major star whose value has increased since last year, and now he is ranked 1127th.
However, troubled musician Kanye West, now known as Yeh, showed the opposite growth when he was taken off the list entirely. The move likely comes as Adidas pulled out of a £1.2 billion deal with the brand. However, his ex-wife Kim Kardashian did make it onto the list, coming in at number 2259 with a net worth of $1.2 billion (£960 million), thanks largely to her Skims brand.
Athletes also joined the list this year, with Tiger Woods debuting at number 2405 with a net worth of $1.1bn (£880m). Basketball legend LeBron James also debuted with a net worth of $1 billion (£800 million). Fashion icon Tom Ford also joined the ranks for the first time.
Ye was not the only one to fall off the list, as a total of 254 people lost their billionaire status, including Sam Bankman Freed and his co-founder Gary Wang, who were involved in crypto scams. Alex Atalla and Devin Finzer of NFT marketplace OpenSea, as well as Enrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi of fintech lending Brex, also lost their status.
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard was the only person to relinquish his billionaire status after donating his fortune to a climate change foundation and nonprofit in September 2022.
Source: I News
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