As at the time of this report Jeff Bezos is still the world’s richest man.
Jeff Bezos didn’t have to wait long to regain his title as world’s richest man: After losing the crown to French luxury retail magnate Bernard Arnault for a few hours, he’s now back at No. 1 when Amazon’s stock rose as New York markets opened. Bezos leads with a fortune of $188.4 billion, ahead of Arnault’s $187.3 billion, as of 1:30 p.m. ET.
Since shares in Arnault’s luxury goods conglomerate LVMH surged in the second half of last week, the two men approached the weekend on equal footing, both worth $186 billion. On Monday, LVMH shares did much better, closing nearly 1% higher and adding $1.7 billion to Arnault’s wealth, allowing him to temporarily surpass Bezos to become the world’s richest individual for a few hours. Then, as of 1:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Amazon shares were up more than 1%, leaving Bezos $2.4 billion richer.
Arnault has previously held the title of world’s richest person: just before the U.S. markets closed on Friday, Arnault was around $100 million wealthier than Bezos, before the two ended the day with the same net worth. Arnault advanced past Bezos to claim No. 1 for the first time on December 16, 2019, at 10:30 a.m. ET, before Amazon shares closed higher and Arnault dropped down to second place.
Though Bezos is now tied for first place with Arnault, he was previously in a close race with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is now the world’s third richest person with a net worth of $150.8 billion. Musk briefly surpassed Bezos as the richest person on three occasions in early January—on January 8, 12, and 14—before the Amazon founder clawed his way back on January 15.
Throughout the pandemic, all three men’s net worths have increased dramatically, totaling more than $300 billion. Bezos has gained more than $75 billion in net worth since Forbes estimated net worths for its 2020 World’s Billionaires list at the height of the market downturn in March 2020, compared to about $127 billion for Musk and $111 billion for Arnault.Bezos’ net worth peaked at a staggering $200 billion on two occasions: first in August 2020 and again late last month in April 2021. According to Forbes
Source: Forbes
