Bernard Arnault, the luxury goods tycoon behind Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and dozens of other brands, has been the world’s richest person since February thanks to the stellar share performance of his LVMH group. Just below Arnault, there’s been a battle for second and third richest as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos flip-flopping spots throughout March— changing places at least a dozen times.
As of April 1 at midnight, Bezos holds the No. 2 spot, worth an estimated $198 billion, while Musk comes in third worth $3 billion less. The big driver in Musk’s fortune is the price of Tesla stock; the company had the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 index in the first quarter of 2024, declining 29%. In March alone shares fell 13%, helping to shave $14 billion off Musk’s fortune.
The biggest gainer in March was Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, whose fortune rose by nearly $16 billion due to a 10% jump in the price of the software giant’s shares. Ellison is currently the world’s fifth richest person, having been overtaken by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in March.
