Elon Musk Loses Top Position, Drops to Second Place in Forbes’ Annual Billionaires List

Forbes has released its annual “World’s Billionaire’s List,” and to the surprise of many, Elon Musk has been dethroned from the top spot. Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, has overtaken Musk to become the world’s richest billionaire with a net worth of over $211 billion. Musk’s net worth, on the other hand, has decreased because of his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, which scared investors and sent Tesla’s stock tumbling last year.

Forbes stated that “Elon Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks” because Tesla shares have decreased by 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. However, Forbes noted that SpaceX is still a bright spot for Musk, with its valuation increasing $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost the most amount of money of any billionaire on the list, with a loss of $57 billion, knocking him down to third place. This can be attributed to Amazon shares losing nearly 40% of their value last year.

For Arnault, Forbes explained that the Frenchman had a “banner year” in 2022, thanks to record-high profits at LVMH, which includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tiffany & Co. Shares of LVMH have climbed 25% over the past year, and the patriarch has recently unveiled succession plans to his children.

Forbes also stated that the total number of billionaires on this year’s list has fallen to 2,640, marking the second-straight year of decline. As for Musk, he is now the second-richest billionaire but is still a multi-billionaire with a net worth of over $155 billion. With SpaceX’s continued growth and the possibility of Tesla rebounding in the stock market, there is still plenty of potential for Musk to regain the top spot in the future.