The French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault has dropped out of the ranking of the 10 richest men in the world, leaving the top spot to a group of all-American billionaires, mostly belonging to the technology sector.
Arnault’s net worth has fallen to 143 billion dollars in the past few hours, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, causing the founder, president and CEO of LVMH to slip to eleventh place, below Warren Buffett, 96-year-old president of Berkshire Hathaway.
Only Americans
Elon Musk leads the ranking by a wide margin, with a wealth of $918.8 billion, followed by technology entrepreneurs such as Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang and Steve Ballmer. It is the first time since the index’s launch in 2012 that all of the top 10 positions are occupied by Americans.
The crisis with the war in the Middle East
Arnault was among the 10 richest people in the world as of March 22, 2017, with a brief stint at the top in December 2022. He was the first non-North American, and only consumer goods tycoon, to reach the top, and no one has matched him since. Since the start of the year, however, the 77-year-old’s wealth has fallen by $65 billion, with the largest decline among the 500 richest men. The war in the Middle East has hit its business hard, dampening demand in trading hubs such as Dubai and China. Key sectors of the group, including Fashion & Leather Goods and Wines & Spirits, showed a contraction in sales volumes compared to post-pandemic peaks.