He was crowned the world’s richest person for the first time in three years this week, dethroning Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
But Jeff Bezos‘ reign is over just days after it begun as he has been knocked off the top spot by LMVH CEO Bernard Arnault.
The trio are the three richest people and often trade the crown between them depending on the success of their respective companies’ shares.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires’ Index, Arnault currently has a net worth of $197 billion.
By comparison, Bezos, 60, has $196 billion while 52-year-old Musk – who also owns X formerly known as Twitter – boasts $189 billion.
Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is now the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index
Arnault, Bezos and Musk are the three richest people and often trade the crown between them depending on the success of their respective companies’ shares
Arnault serves as the CEO and chair of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH which owns well-known brands including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, and Dom Pérignon.
But that is not where his money comes from. The majority of his fortune is driven by his 97.5 percent stake in Christian Dior, Bloomberg states.
In 2022, the 75-year-old entrepreneur raised LMVH’s mandatory retirement age to 80 which gives him another five years in control. His five children all work across LVHM and its brands, with daughter Delphine acting as CEO and chair of Dior.
It means that Musk is now only the third richest person, after Tesla shares plummeted 7.2 percent on Tuesday. Today they are down 5.14 percent compared to last year.
Tesla’s shares slump came after disappointing sales in China. Figures from the China Passenger Car Association show Tesla sold 60,365 vehicles in February, down 19 percent from a year earlier and the lowest volume since December 2022.
By comparison, Amazon shares are up 88.75 percent compared to last year and are within reaching distance of their record-highs, set in 2021.
Arnault dethroned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, pictured with fiancée Lauren Sanchez, who took the top spot earlier this week for the first time since 2021
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, pictured, is now the third richest person in the world after shares in his EV manufacturer tumbled this week
Most of Bezos’s fortune comes from his 9 per cent stake in Amazon, where he is the biggest shareholder, despite selling 50 million shares worth around $8.5 billion in February.
Bezos first stepped ahead of Microsoft Inc. co-founder Bill Gates as the world’s richest person in 2017.
But a huge rally in Tesla shares left Bezos and Musk vying for first position for most of 2021.
Late in 2021, Bezos dropped far behind, and this week was the first time he has reclaimed the position since then.
Here MailOnline looks at the other mega rich people on the list.
It comes after a report by anti-poverty organization Oxfam warned the world could soon have its first trillionaire – somebody who has a thousand billion dollars – within a decade.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. Zuckerberg is the founder, chairman and CEO of Meta, which he first founded as Facebook in 2004
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975 with Paul Allen
The findings, released in January, showed that the fortunes of the five richest people in the world had more than doubled to a staggering $869 billion since 2020. Today that figure has increased further still to $908 billion.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is currently the fourth richest person in the world while Bill Gates rounds out the top five. They are worth $178 billion and $148 billion respectively.
Lisa Rutherford, from Oxfam, told DailyMail.com: ‘The important thing is not who would become the first trillionaire but rather that it’s even an actual possibility, a trillion dollars is an unimaginable amount of money, and it’s absolutely nothing to celebrate.
‘As of 2022, hundreds of millions of people around the world – including one in 10 people in the US – were living in poverty, so the fact that any one person – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or otherwise – could become a trillionaire while millions of people suffer is simply unacceptable.’
