Forbes releases annual ranking of billionaires for 2024, and Bernard Arnault remains at the top | Economy

Frenchman Bernard Arnault, president of the luxury group LVMH, leads the annual Forbes 2024 billionaire rankings, published this Tuesday (2).

Arnault leads the ranking, with US$233 billion, an increase of US$22 billion compared to last year. By 2023, he had reached first place, surpassing Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.

Musk is in second place, with US$195 billion in assets.

The first woman on the list is French businesswoman Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress of L’Oréal. At the end of the year, it is in 15th place, with US$99.5 billion.

See the top 10 among the richest in the world:

1. Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, parent company of the fashion house Louis Vuitton, with US$233 billion
2. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, with US$195 billion
3. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, with US$194 billion
4. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Meta, with US$177 billion
5. Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, with $141 billion
6. Warren Buffett, mega-investor, with US$ 133 billion
7. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, with US$128 billion
8. Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, with $121 billion
9. Mukesh Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries, with $116 billion
10. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, with US$114 billion

Bernard Arnault owns the largest luxury goods company in the world. The LVMH group brings together 70 brands – such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora and Tiffany’s.

Born in 1949 into a family of small industrialists, Arnault was never exactly poor, but he multiplied countless times the initial US$15 million he got from his father, a builder, to invest in his own business. With this money, he bought the Christian Dior brand, his first brand. Even today, Dior is the main holding company of LVMH.

However, it is joined by other big names in fashion such as Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs and Kenzo, among others. And the group also brings together brands of watches, accessories and drinks, such as Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Moët&Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Dom Pérignon, to name a few. In 2019, it acquired the Belmond group, owner of 46 hotels, trains and river cruises.

Bernard Arnault has five children, and four of them – Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre – work with their father. In 2012, he became a naturalized Belgian citizen, although he currently lives in Paris.

The businessman dedicates part of his fortune to sponsoring a series of projects to encourage the arts and, in 2019, he donated US$11 million to help fight fires in the Amazon. During the Covid-19 pandemic, part of the production of perfume and alcoholic beverages from the group’s brands was converted into the production of alcohol gel, and 12 tons of the product were donated to hospitals in the French capital.

See who are the billionaires who became richest in 2023