French fashion tycoon, Bernard Arnault, has become the world’s richest person, following a rise in the stock of his fashion company, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
Arnault became the world’s richest person on Monday morning with an estimated net worth of $186.3bn, with Jeff Bezos following closely at $186bn and Elon Musk with $147.3bn, according to Forbes.
The top of Forbes’ billionaires’ list has been largely dominated by Americans over the years.
U.S citizens like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Bezos and Musk had claimed the number one spot for over twenty years, with only Mexico’s Carlos Slim disrupting their dominance for a short period.
Arnault became part of the top 10 richest men in 2005 when his net worth was $13bn.
In 2018, he climbed to the top five, and by 2019, he became the third-richest person with a $76bn fortune.
In 2019, he briefly became the world’s richest person at around 10:30 a.m. EST on December 16, when he edged past Bezos.
As Amazon’s stock closed higher, the French tycoon was knocked back to number two.
Arnault’s fortune experienced a massive rise of over $110bn in the past 14 months, moving from $76bn in March 2020 to $186.3bn on Monday.
The massive rise was attributed to the performance of his luxury group, LVMH, during the pandemic.
