Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault unseats Jeff Bezos as world's Richest

According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, Bernard Arnault, the Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person with a wealth of USD 199.8 billion.

Mumbai: Bernard Arnault has dethroned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person. According to the Real-Time Billionaires List of Forbes, while the family of Arnault has a net worth of USD 199.8 billion Bezo’s net worth stands at USD 194.9 billion on Friday. Arnault is the Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Bernard Arnault is also known as one of the world's ultimate taste-makers. He oversees an empire of 70 brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.

Arnault was in the news early this year when LVMH completed a deal for American jeweller Tiffany & Co for USD 15.8 billion, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever. Similarly, the French company had spent USD 3.2 billion in 2019 to acquire luxury hospitality group Belmond. The group owns or manages 46 hotels, trains and river cruises. “Arnault’s father made a small fortune in construction; Arnault got his start by putting up USD 15 million from that business to buy Christian Dior in 1985. Four of Arnault's five children work in corners of the LVMH empire: Frederic, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre,” says Arnault’s bio on the Forbes website.

Mentioning the achievements of Amazon in recent times, the website said the company’s revenues grew by a whopping 38 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Amazon thrived during the pandemic; revenues in 2020 grew 38 per cent to USD 386 billion as people stayed home and made online purchases,” says his bio on the Forbes website.

Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman on July 5, 2021. He and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage, and he transferred a quarter of his 16 per cent Amazon stake to her. Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets for commercial use.

In the Real-Time Billionaires List, Arnault and Bezos followed by Tesla CEO and Chairman Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.