Jeff Bezos momentarily forfeited his title of “richest person on the planet” on July 20 when his Blue Origin spacecraft reached suborbital flight for a few minutes.
Now, the multibillionaire is once again without the title, but this time because his net worth actually tumbled — by $13.9 billion in one day.
Bezos’ net worth fell because Amazon’s AMZN, -0.92% stock price took a hit last week, sliding 7% after the company reported less-than-anticipated second-quarter growth.
The drop in Bezos’ net worth allowed for French tycoon Bernard Arnault to claim the No. 1 spot of the ultra-wealthy. Arnault heads the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH LVMH, -0.04%, whose subsidiaries include Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Moët & Chandon, and Tiffany & Co.
It might seem that a global pandemic and economic recession would set the luxury goods market back a bit, but Arnault remarkably grew his wealth by nearly $100 billion during the first year of the pandemic.
Arnault’s net worth sat at $195.8 billion as of Monday, while Bezos’ hovered at $192.6 billion.
Bezos made history in 2020 as the first person ever to be worth $200 billion, as Amazon enjoyed big gains from pandemic lockdowns.
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The two billionaires had jockeyed for the top spot throughout May and June of this year, but the recent toss-up put an end to Bezos’ 50-day streak at the top of the heap, according to Forbes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated feed)
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