Jeff Bezos momentarily beaten as richest man in world by Bernard Arnault

Don't worry, Bill Gates is still massively wealthy, too

Clark Mindock
New York
Monday 16 December 2019 20:08 GMT
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Bernard Arnault explains how he got into the luxury sector at the beginning of his career

For a brief and fleeting moment, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was dethroned from his perch atop the world’s richest people’s list, as luxury goods CEO Bernard Arnault saw his net worth skyrocket.

Mr Arnault became the first man in years whose last name is not Gates or Bezos to be able to call himself the world’s richest on Monday, with a net worth of $109.6bn, according to the Forbes list of real-time billionaires.

The ascent came after Mr Arnault – the CEO of the luxury goods maker LVMH – added $34.3bn to his net worth in the past year alone. But, Mr Bezos reclaimed his title quickly, as Mr Arnault’s net worth dropped to $109.3 billion, compared to Mr Bezos’ $109.8bn.

With Mr Bezos in first, and Mr Arnault in second, that has left the other man who is often mentioned as among the richest – Bill Gates – in third place, with a comfortable $107.9bn.

Mr Bezos managed to drop from first place in part due to his recent divorce from his former wife, Mackenzie Bezos.

Ms Bezos received a quarter of the couple’s holdings in Amazon through the divorce, making her the 27th richest person in the world.

She has a net worth of $34.7bn.

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