Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault remains richest man in the world

French businessman and investor Bernard Arnault retained his position as the world’s richest man on Forbes’ billionaires list this year, increasing his lead on social media and ecommerce behemoths Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg to amass a staggering £233billion (FJ$661.77bn) fortune. Overseeing the LVMH luxury fashion empire of 75 brands and cosmetics labels, including Louis Vuitton, Sephora and Tiffany & Co, the 75-year-old from Roubaix,

France was worth an estimated US$22billion (FJ$49.7bn) more than he was 12 months ago, according to Forbes’ calculations. Arnault enjoyed record success with the conglomerate into 2024, adding some $22billion US$22billion (FJ$49.7bn) to his personal wealth and putting him $38bn above runner-up Elon Musk, whose fortune climbed a more modest US$15billion (FJ33.88bn) up to $195billion (FJ$440.5bn) this year.

The Tesla and Space X founder, who acquired Twitter in October 2022, continues to battle for second place with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The latter had an estimated personal wealth of US$194billion (FJ$438.24bn) this year as Forbes recorded the highest number of billionaires worldwide ever.

Mark Zuckerberg filled the fourth spot, coming in behind X owner Musk as the second-richest social media owner - despite Meta’s ownership of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp among others. Zuckerberg nonetheless saw a meteoric rise through 2023, his fortune up some US$116billion (FJ$262.04bn) thanks to Meta stock nearly tripling amid cost-cutting layoffs and ventures into AI and the metaverse.

Larry Ellison, Chief Technology Officer at software company Oracle is the entrepreneur in fifth place this year with an estimated person wealth of US$141billion (FJ$318.51bn).