Elon Musk Loses Crown: Forbes Releases Annual List of 25 Richest People in the World for 2023
- Forbes has released its annual billionaire's list, with Elon Musk losing his spot to French billionaire Bernard Arnault
- Musk has lost a substantial part of his wealth since his $44 billion takeover of Twitter
- Forbes also revealed that the total number of billionaires in the 2022 list fell to 2,640 (down from 2,668), marking the second-straight year of decline
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French billionaire Bernard Arnault has taken over the top spot on Forbes' annual billionaires list, replacing Elon Musk, who held the position for one year after succeeding Jeff Bezos in 2022.
According to the latest ranking, Musk's net worth is now $180 billion, making him the second richest man in the world. This is $39 billion less than his net worth at the beginning of 2022.
Meanwhile, the net worth of Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, has increased by more than $50 billion in the past year to reach $211 billion.
In the last few months, Musk and Arnault have switched places a few times on the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list.
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Forbes comment on Elon Musk
The respected magazine noted that Musk’s wealth had fallen because his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, scared investors and sent Tesla stocks sinking sharply last year.
Tesla gained much of the losses this year but is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter, CNN reported.
Forbes added that:
“Elon Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks because Tesla shares are down 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago."
The magazine also said SpaceX is a bright spot for Musk since its valuation has increased from $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.
As for Arnault, Forbes said the Frenchman had a “banner year” in 2022 because of record-high profits at the luxury conglomerate, which comprises 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.
Other billionaires performance
Forbes also said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost the most money of any billionaire on the list ($57 billion), knocking him down from the second position to third.
The loss can be attributed to Amazon shares losing nearly 40% of their value last year.
Forbes' also revealed that the 2022 list has two absentees from last year.
Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming dropped one spot to No. 26, while Binance founder Changpeng Zhao fell from No. 19 to No. 167 due to the crypto market decline.
List of top 25 richest men in the world and net worth as of March 10, 2023
- Bernard Arnault & family: $211 Billion
- Elon Musk: $180 Billion
- Jeff Bezos: $114 Billion
- Larry Ellison: $107 Billion
- Warren Buffett: $106 Billion
- Bill Gates: $104 Billion
- Michael Bloomberg: $94.5 Billion
- Carlos Slim Helú & family: $93 Billion
- Mukesh Ambani: $83.4 Billion
- Larry Page: $82.4 Billion
- Sergey Brin: $81.7 Billion
- Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & family: $80 Billion
- Steve Ballmer: $78.2 Billion
- Amancio Ortega: $75 Billion
- Jim Walton: $70.7 Billion
- Alice Walton: $70.3 Billion
- Rob Walton: $70.2 Billion
- Mark Zuckerberg: $68.6 Billion
- Larry Fink: $65.2 Billion
- Ma Huateng: $64.3 Billion
- Steve Cohen: $61.9 Billion
- Michael Dell: $59.6 Billion
- Colin Huang: $58.9 Billion
- Gautam Adani: $57.8 Billion
- Julia Koch & family: $55.8 Billion
More money for Dangote
In another report, Legit.ng revealed that Africa's richest man is set to walk home with over N293 billion as dividends from his cement company, Dangote Cement.
Aliko Dangote's cement company recorded a revenue jump of 16.96% in 2022, to hit a high of over N1.61 trillion.
Dangote's dividend is more than the budget of 25 states for the fiscal year of 2023.
Source: Legit.ng