Elon Musk Loses Title as World’s Richest Person to Bernard Arnault

By Business Desk
December 9, 2022
Last Updated: December 10, 2022

Business & Marketing, Lifestyle

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Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and CEO of Tesla, briefly lost the title of richest man in the world on Wednesday, according to Forbes. The development came following a sharp decline in the value of Elon Musk‘s share in the electric-car manufacturer and a $44 billion wager on the social media company.

At 3:30 p.m. ET on December 7, Bernard Arnault once more surpassed Elon Musk to take the title of richest person in the world. Musk was believed to be worth $184.6 billion, lagging him by $100 million in wealth. At 4:00 p.m., U.S. markets closed. With an estimated net worth of $185.4 billion, or $700 million more than Arnault, Musk had reclaimed the lead by ET. Forbes will keep you informed as the rankings change.

Elon Musk first surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world on September 27, 2021. When contacted that day for comment, the Tesla CEO sent Forbes an email with the subject line, “I’m sending a big statue of the digit ‘2’ together with a silver medal to Jeffrey B.” As of 10:50 AM EST on Wednesday, 14 months later, Musk was once again the legal owner of the runner-up trophy. But he is not to blame; Bezos is.

Tesla shares were down 2.7% despite having lost more than 47% of their value since Musk announced his approach to purchase Twitter earlier this year.

Arnault’s net worth increased by a few hundred million dollars since his company shares edged higher on Wednesday morning. Arnault, however, owes his regained position as the richest person in the world primarily to the significant decline in the price of Tesla’s stock given that LVMH’s stock has been unchanged this year. Elon Musk net worth peaked at $320 billion in November 2021, which was reduced.

According to the Forbes, the business to which Musk owes the majority of his money has had a tumultuous year. But the stock has had a terrible performance. For the year, Tesla stock has decreased by close to 50%. That represents a decline of almost 20 percentage points from the Nasdaq’s overall tech-heavy average. Due to his stock and option holdings, Musk controls approximately 25% of Tesla, yet his current value is 43% lower than it was in November 2021.

Tesla’s performance has been hindered by supply chain challenges, mainly as a result of China’s zero-Covid policy, since since it posted record revenue and earnings in the first quarter of 2022, unlocking options for Musk at the time valued $23 billion. In the second quarter, deliveries fell for the first time in two years. Despite exceeding analysts’ adjusted earnings per share forecasts in Q2 and Q3, the firm experienced revenue shortfalls in both quarters. However, the company’s stock price has declined by over half since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was first revealed on April 14. This is largely attributable to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.