Forbes Billionaires List 2023: Elon Musk No Longer The World's Richest Man

French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault has officially surpassed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take the title of world's richest billionaire. According to Forbes' calculations, the 74-year-old engineer tops the 2023 billionaires list with a $211-billion fortune, surpassing Elon Musk, who was placed first last year and is now in second place, by $31-billion.

The Frenchman first made an appearance on Forbes' list of the richest people in 1997, when his net worth was $3.1 billion. He rose swiftly up the rankings, breaking into the top 20 richest people by 2005 (worth $17 billion), and then rising to the fourth place globally (worth $41 billion) in 2011. He has ranked third for the past three years, finishing last year behind Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Arnault enjoyed a successful year due to the luxury conglomerate's record-breaking revenues in 2022, which include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tiffany & Co. It is now obvious that Arnault has perfected the technique for maintaining the allure of traditional luxury items. “Why are brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior so successful? They have these two aspects, which may be contradictory: They are timeless, [and] they are at the utmost level of modernity,” Arnault was quoted as saying by Forbes in 2019.

According to Forbes' ‘The Real-Time Billionaires List’, Elon Musk's estimated net worth is $180 billion, down $39 billion from the prior year. Due to his $44-billion acquisition of Twitter, which was paid for with Tesla stock, Musk's net worth has decreased. Tesla stock fell significantly as a result of this transaction as investors were a little spooked by Musk’s whims. While Tesla has recovered a large portion of those losses this year, it is still far lower than it was when Musk purchased Twitter.

According to Forbes, “Musk’s loss in wealth is second only to that of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who’s the world’s third-richest person, worth $114-billion. He’s $57-billion poorer than in 2022 thanks to a 38 per cent decline in the e-commerce giant’s stock.”

• Co-founder of the software behemoth Oracle, Larry Ellison, comes in at number four with a net worth of $107-billion.

• Legendary investor Warren Buffett ranks fifth with a net worth of $106-billion.

• Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $104-billion, is ranked sixth.

• Michael Bloomberg, with an estimated net worth of $94.5-billion, is ranked seventh.

• Carlos Slim Helu and family, who purchased a stake in Telmex, Mexico's sole phone operator in 1990, ranks eighth with a net worth of $93-billion.

• Mukesh Ambani, who has a $83.4-billion net worth, is ranked ninth.

• Steve Ballmer, the dynamic former CEO of Microsoft, is ranked tenth overall with an estimated net worth of $80.7-billion.