Elon Musk Dethroned from the Top of Forbes’ Annual Billionaires List

The Tesla and Twitter chief is worth almost $40 billion less than last year. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Trevor Cokley/Public Domain

Elon Musk has officially lost the top place on Forbes’ annual “World’s Billionaire’s List,” which was released on Tuesday.

The Tesla and Twitter chief is now the second-richest billionaire, worth an estimated $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than the previous year.

The top spot has been awarded to Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH. His net worth increased more than $50 billion in the past year to $211 billion. This marks the first time a citizen of France leads the ranking, Forbes says.

Musk’s position wobbled on the Forbes’ “Real-Time Billionaires” list, which is updated daily, for the past several months. He and Arnault often switch places.

However, Tuesday’s list tracks his wealth annually. Forbes explained that Musk’s wealth had fallen because his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, scared investors and sent Tesla stock sinking sharply last year. Tesla gained much of those losses back this year but is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter.

Forbes said that “Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks” because Tesla shares are down 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. SpaceX is a bright spot for the billionaire, the magazine notes, since its valuation has increased $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost the most amount of money of any billionaire on the list ($57 billion), knocking him down from second position to third. The loss can be attributed to Amazon shares losing nearly 40% of their value last year.

Forbes says that overall, falling stocks, wounded unicorns and rising interest rates translated into a down year for the world’s wealthiest people.

Globally, Forbes counted 2,640 ten-figure fortunes, down from 2,668 last year. Altogether, the planet’s billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion, a drop of $500 billion from $12.7 trillion in March 2022.

The United States still boasts the most billionaires, with 735 list members worth a collective $4.5 trillion. China (including Hong Kong and Macau) remains second, with 562 billionaires worth $2 trillion, followed by India, with 169 billionaires worth $675 billion.

Six Greeks in the Forbes’ annual billionaires list

For the first time this year, Maria Angelicoussis, the 41-year-old head of Angelicoussis Shipping Group is included in Forbes’ list. She heads one of the largest shipping companies in the world, and her wealth is estimated at $5.6 billion.

Another new addition to the Forbes list is Marianna Latsis’ family, which ranks 1,804th with a fortune of $1.6 billion.

In 905th place is 61-year-old Telis Mystakidis with a fortune of $3.2 billion, thanks in particular to his long activity in the metals sector.

The 1,067th place is occupied by 69-year-old Philippos Niarchos, with his wealth estimated at $2.8 billion and remaining at stable levels since 2018. Next is the family of Vardis Vardinogiannis in the 1,575th place, with a fortune of $1.9 billion.

In the 1,905th place is the family of Spyros Latsis, whose fortune amounts to approximately $1.5 billion dollars. The list also includes Ivan Savvidis, who has Russian citizenship, with a fortune of $1.7 billion in position 1,725.

The Forbes list also includes the Cypriot founder of EasyJet, well-known businessman Stelios Hadjiioannou, together with his sister Clelia Hadjiioannou, who are in 2,540th place with a wealth of $1 billion each.