ELON MUSK has fallen behind Bernard Arnault and family in the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. Musk’s wealth peaked this year, though it has tumbled since then.
According to Forbes, his wealth came down by $4.5 billion in the intra-day trading on Tuesday, a slide of 2.49 per cent. Meanwhile, Bernard Arnault (CEO of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – better known as LVMH) and family’s wealth rose by $1.1 billion, an upward movement of 0.61 per cent).
This has happened before; Musk has temporarily lost his place to Arnault in the past as well. But this time, the difference is a little more discernible.
On December 12, in a harbinger of thethingsto come, Forbes ran the headline, “Elon Musk Starts Week As World’s Second Richest Person.”
The main reason for the decline in Musk’s net worth is the fall in Tesla’s share price. Media outlets based in the US have reported that Musk is giving off the impression that he is micromanaging things at Twitter ever since he took over the social media giant.
This has worried Tesla’s shareholders that the company is being neglected even though it is gong through a crucial time.
In October, Tesla had slashed prices of two of its models by 5-9 per cent. This was seen by many as a move to strengthen the auto manufacturer’s competitive position to increase demand and the number of orders.
CnEVPost, which reports on electric vehicle news from China said that the Tesla Shanghai plant was reportedly going to cut production as demand was falling short of expectations.
Apparently, Musk’s weekend tweeting has not been without impact. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives was quoted saying by Forbes that “the tweets by Musk are creating more noise, which creates a negative for Twitter and therefore Tesla.”
Bernard Arnault, the new number one on the Forbes list oversees the LVMH empire of some 70 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
LVMH acquired American jeweller Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion in January 2021, which is believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever.
For the same day, Gautam Adani’s wealth grew by $219 million to stand at $133.9 billion.