Nueva York (CNN Business) — Elon Musk is about to lose his status as the world’s richest person, according to one metric.
This Wednesday, Musk fell for a brief moment to second place in the forbes list of “real-time billionaires,” ranking the CEO of Twitter and Tesla behind Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton and Hennessy cognac. Forbes now estimates Musk’s net worth at $184.9 billion, just ahead of Arnault’s, estimated at $184.7 billion.
“The fortunes of the two men are nearly equal, separated by just $200 million, so it won’t be surprising if they continue to swing in Forbes’ ranking of the world’s richest.” noted forbes.
The publication also said that Arnault’s rise comes as LVMH shares are mostly flat this year, while Musk has experienced a “dramatic collapse of Tesla’s stock price,” which is down 56% in 2022. Musk’s strategy of partnering with right-wing influencers on Twitter may also be weighing on Tesla’s stock. Musk’s wealth peaked in November 2021, with a estimated value of US$ 320,000 million, according to Forbes.
Musk recently sold about $4 billion of Tesla stock to finance his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which is mired in problems including layoffs and advertisers wary of the platform’s leadership. Musk had sold blocks of Tesla stock worth a total of $15.4 billion earlier this year, when his deal to buy Twitter was announced.
Estimating Musk’s wealth overall is a difficult task, however, since much of his money is invested in his private companies, including rocket and internet firm SpaceX, tunneling firm The Boring Company and Neuralink, which wants to put chips in people’s brains.
Despite the losses, Musk is well ahead of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who ranks third, with a net worth of $134.8 billion, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is estimated at $111.3 billion. .
On the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk ranks No. 1 with a net worth of $179 billion. Arnault is in second place, with a net worth of $165 billion. Yet Musk has lost about $13 billion this year, according to Bloomberg calculations. The list is updated daily after the market closes.