Bernard Arnault is a French billionaire businessman with a net worth of $193 billion. Bernard Arnault acquired his riches working for LVMH, the largest luxury goods company in the world.
He is the company’s CEO and chairman. His adult life has been spent majorly among the richest people in the world, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. On December 13, 2022, Bernard Arnault surpassed Elon Musk to claim the title of the richest Man in the world.
Bernard Arnault’s Net Worth: $193 billion
Bloomberg estimates Bernard Arnault’s net wealth is a comfortable $190 billion. The sum was much smaller in 2022 ($7.2 billion) due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s consequences and the difficult economic environment.
Arnault has accumulated significant riches, but he shows no signs of slowing down; in fact, LVMH lifted its CEO age limit from 75 to 80 in early 2022, indicating he’ll continue to hold the position for at least a few more years. Arnault has the resources to live a luxurious lifestyle, yet he seems to have chosen a simple one. When Bloomberg revealed that it had been followed on Twitter, he recently sold LVMH’s private jet.
Arnault is said to have $10.3 billion in cash and other assets, likes collecting art, and more, according to the journal., LVMH has a $384 billion market worth.
97% of Dior is owned directly by Bernard and the larger Arnault family, while Dior controls 41% of LVMH. The family alone directly owns an additional 7% of LVMH. They get more votes than the majority of the electorate.
Bernard owns two French vineyards, Princess Yachts, 5% of Carrefour, France’s largest grocery chain, and a multibillion-dollar art collection that includes works by Picasso and Warhol and his ownership in LVMH. Also, he holds 5% of LVMH.
In June 2019, Bernard Arnault’s net worth crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time. At the time, he was the third-richest man in the world. He achieved $108 billion in net worth in July 2019, surpassing Bill Gates by around $400 million to become the second-richest person in the world. When his $171 billion net worth surpassed Elon Musk’s $168 billion net worth in December 2022, he passed Musk to become the world’s richest person.
Various Investments
Arnault is also working on several other initiatives outside of LVMH. Among the internet firms he invested in between 1998 and 2001 via his holding company Europatweb were Boo.com, Libertysurg, and Zebank. He acquired a stake in Netflix in 1999 via his investment firm, Groupe Arnault.
In 2007, it was made public that Arnault and the California-based real estate firm Colony Capital owned 10.69% of Carrefour. Carrefour, the second-largest food distributor in the world, is also France’s top supermarket chain. He has also worked in the yachting sector. In 2008, he made a €253 million investment to buy Princess Yachts. He then spent around the same amount to take up Royal van Lent.