Bernard Arnault is no longer the top dog when it comes to billionaires . The LVMH founder has seen his net worth plummet this year, part of a larger downturn in the luxury market that has caused billionaires in the field to lose a collective $24 billion in 2024 so far, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Arnault himself is down $10.
8 billion year to date, with his wealth sitting at $197 billion. He’s now behind Elon Musk ($270 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($215 billion) on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Along with Arnault, luxury-world billionaires such as Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and François-Henri Pinault have seen their fortunes tumble.
At the end of last year, Bettencourt Meyers became the first woman worth $100 billion , but her net worth now sits at $89.9 billion. And Pinault has seen his wealth cut in half over the past three years, Bloomberg noted, as it now sits at $27.
6 billion. In total, the six people on Bloomberg’s ranking who have made their money in luxury goods have seen their cumulative wealth drop by 5 percent this year. The rest of the 500-person group, however, has seen their net worth rise an impressive 13 percent, or $1 trillion.
The gulf between the two groups hasn’t been so big since May 2022, the outlet noted. The drop-off is a sign of the overwhelmingly choppy waters that the luxury world finds itself in right now. Many brands are struggling, with Arnault’s LVMH reporting slower sales growth in fashion and leather goods in the first quarter .