Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has overtaken French billionaire Bernard Arnault to become the second-richest person in the world, as tech stocks have surged and demand for high-end handbags and other luxury items has softened.
Amazon’s
AMZN,
Bezos now sits behind No. 1 billionaire, Tesla
TSLA,
CEO Elon Musk, with a total net worth of $156 billion, a sum that has increased by $49.3 billion since the start of 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Arnault, founder and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
MC,
has seen his net worth fall $6.95 billion to $155 billion so far this year. The drop in Arnault’s net worth puts the billionaire in third place on the list of the world’s richest people, behind Bezos and Musk.
Bezos has, alongside his fellow tech billionaires, seen his net worth bulge this year, on the back of a 54% surge in Amazon’s stock price since the start of 2023, following a series of strong results from the e-commerce giant. That’s after a 49% drop in 2022.
More broadly, stocks listed on the NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index
XX:NDXT
have risen by 43% in 2023, as the sector has benefited from stabilizing interest rates and the buzz around artificial intelligence.
Arnault’s decline in wealth comes after shares in LVMH, which owns top luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Moët, and Tiffany & Co, fell 7% in a single day last week after the Paris-headquartered firm posted underwhelming financial results. The shares are down over 4% so far in 2023.
LVMH’s disappointing results may have signaled the end of the boom in demand for expensive Champagne and handbags that has buoyed luxury goods sellers since the start of COVID-19.
Arnault’s current net worth marks a significant decline from the more than $200 billion the 74-year-old held at the peak of his wealth seen earlier this year. The Arnault family owns an almost 50% stake in LVMH.
Bezos’ net worth is also currently lower than at its peak of $214 billion in July 2021, when the e-commerce maker was benefiting from pandemic-fueled spending. The tech billionaire is Amazon’s biggest shareholder and owns a 10% stake in the Seattle-headquartered firm, according to data from FactSet.
Musk, meanwhile, is now the only person in the world with a net worth of more than $200 billion, largely due to his 13% stake in Tesla, alongside his holdings in various companies including The Boring Company and X, which was previously known as Twitter.
The 52-year-old Tesla CEO’s net worth is currently estimated at $234 billion, having increased by $96.8 billion in 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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