French Billionaire Ousts Bezos from the Throne of the World's Richest

French billionaire Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton, has managed to once again oust Jeff Bezos from the position of the world's richest person, based on the current stock price of Louis Vuitton. Earlier this year, Arnault's fortune surpassed that of the Amazon founder. Arnault, who has been chairman of Louis Vuitton since acquiring a 44% stake in the brand conglomerate in the late 1980s, has a net worth of $196 billion as of Thursday. This exceeds Jeff Bezos's net worth of approximately $186 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Alongside a family company, Arnault now owns 47% of Louis Vuitton, which has a total market value of $416 billion as of Thursday. The company, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Sephora, and Hennessy, has seen its stock price rise by over 30% since the beginning of the year. Louis Vuitton has rebounded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, recording several of its brands with record sales and profits in the first half of 2021, with the company generating $17.4 billion in revenue during the second quarter, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels. Conversely, a decline in Amazon's profits by over 7% last week helped propel Arnault to the top, as Bezos experienced a drop in net worth of around $14 billion in one day. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, ranks third on the list of the world's richest, with wealth exceeding $160 billion from his 22.4% stake in Tesla and holdings in his other company, SpaceX.