Elon Musk has been officially ousted from the top of Forbes magazine’s annual “World’s Billionaires List.
The Tesla and Twitter boss is now the second-richest billionaire, with an estimated fortune of $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than the previous year. The first place was awarded to Bernard Arnault, president of the French luxury goods giant LVMH. His net worth has increased by more than US$50 billion in the last year to reach US$211 billion.
This should come as no surprise to Musk, whose position has teetered on Forbes’ daily-updated “Real-Time Billionaires” list for the past few months. He and Arnault often trade places.
However, this Tuesday’s list tracks annual wealth. Forbes explained that Musk’s wealth had shrunk because Twitter’s $44 billion buyout of him, financed with Tesla stock, spooked investors and sent Tesla shares tumbling sharply last year. Tesla recouped much of those losses this year, but they’re still significantly below what they were worth before Musk bought Twitter.
Forbes said that “Musk has largely tweeted himself out of the top ranks” because Tesla shares are down 50% since he took control of Twitter a year ago. SpaceX is a bright factor for the billionaire, the magazine notes, as its valuation rose from $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.
