LVMH Chairman – Bernard Arnault – is the third person after Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to have accumulated a fortune exceeding $200 billion.

The fortune of Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person, surpassed the $200 billion mark for the first time as shares in his LVMH luxury goods empire in France hit a record high. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos previously reached the $200 billion mark before their assets dropped “hugely” as the stock prices of technology companies plummeted, according to Business Insider.

Bernard Arnault’s assets have increased by $2.4 billion by the end of April 2023, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index updated daily. Since the beginning of the year, his fortune has increased by $39 billion thanks to a 30% increase in LVMH shares, as demand for luxury goods among the world’s wealthy skyrocketed.

The French billionaire’s assets are 30 billion USD more than that of Elon Musk, whose fortune was “knocked out” after buying Twitter worth 44 billion USD, reducing the value of shares of electric car company Tesla by 50% in past year. Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and 13% shareholder of Tesla.

Jeff Bezos, the first person to reach the $200 billion mark in August 2020, is the third richest person in the world with a fortune of $125 billion. Bernard Arnault is Chairman and CEO of LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Moët & Chandon champagne. LVMH shares are up more than 150% in the past three years, reaching a new high of $940 per share. LVMH last year achieved record revenue of $87 billion and began buying back shares worth $1.65 billion, helping to boost its stock price further.

Arnault co-founded the luxury goods group 35 years ago and is its main shareholder, recently appointing his children to key roles in the business. In January 2023, eldest daughter Delphine, was appointed head of Christian Dior, the second-largest brand in the empire. Her brother Antoine was promoted to run the holding company that controls LVMH and the Arnault family assets.

His three younger children also have important jobs in the world’s largest luxury goods company, which includes brands such as Stella McCartney, TAG Heuer, Bvlgari and Tiffany. Alexandre Arnault is the chief executive officer of Tiffany; Frédéric Arnault is the chief executive officer of TAG Heuer, while youngest brother Jean Arnault heads marketing and product development for Louis Vuitton’s watch brand.