Elon Musk Has Become World’s Richest Person Again, Beating Bernard Arnault by $4 Billion

According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index updated on Thursday, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is once again the world’s richest person. The index puts Musk’s total net worth at $192 billion, noting a year-to-date (YTD) addition of $55.3 billion. The list also has LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault as the second richest at $187 billion, and Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos in the third position with $144 billion. All three business tycoons are centibillionaires – each with a net worth of at least $100 billion.

The Bloomberg index also has several other centibillionaires occupying the first nine positions. The richest person on the list with less than $100 billion is Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at $96.5 billion. Interestingly, Zuckerberg’s net worth has increased by $50.9 billion this year alone, giving him the second-largest YTD addition in the top 10, right after Musk.

LVMH CEO Knocked Elon Musk and Became World’s Richest Person after Last Year’s Twitter Acquisition

In December, Arnault beat Musk to become the richest person after Tesla shares crashed nearly 30%. The company’s stock seemingly reacted to news of Elon Musk acquiring Twitter for $44 billion. At the time, Musk sold billions worth of his Tesla shares to fund the acquisition, leaving investor sentiment relatively low.

Musk also appointed himself CEO and has remained in the position since then. However, he recently announced a new witter CEO, adding that he would step down when she resumes.

Yaccarino was Turner Broadcasting’s executive vice president and the COO of advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions from 1992 to 2011. After leaving the position, she moved to NBC Universal Media, where she served as the Chairman of Global Advertising & Partnerships. She announced her resignation from NBCU shortly before announcing her appointment as Twitter’s new CEO.

Musk Seeking Foreign Expansion

Musk has just departed Shanghai after spending two days where he met with government officials. Musk met with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who reportedly assured Musk that the country is willing to accept foreign investments. Qin also reportedly promised China would continue friendly business relations with China. However, not many specifics of Musk’s meeting with Chinese officials are known.

Following news of Musk’s meeting with Qin, Tesla shares climbed over 4%. Tesla’s construction of a Shanghai mega factory seems to be welcome by Chinese authorities considering tensions between China and members of the G7. Recently, these countries reportedly decided to decouple from China. The US says China is expanding its nuclear strength using its semiconductor technology.

The Biden government proceeded to restrict semiconductor exports to China, hoping to damage the country’s supposed plan. However, China responded by prohibiting all semiconductor purchases from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU). According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, Micron poses a serious security threat.