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There’s a new centibillionaire in town and his name is Bernard Arnault
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The chairman of LVMH can now claim the title thanks to his company shares climbing in value
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He now joins the ranks of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as the only people in the world over $100 billion
The millionaires’ club? Archaic. The billionaires’ club? Old news. We’re onto the centibillionaires’ club now. A Frenchman called Bernard Arnault has just become the third centibillionaire in the world thanks to stocks of his main company soaring in value after it released its first quarter earnings report.
Arnault is Chairman and Chief Exec of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, commonly referred to as LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods company.
These brands include: Fendi, Givenchy, Dior, TAG Heuer, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, Hennessy and countless others.
He entered the centibillion club with a new worth of $100.4 billion thanks to the shares of LVMH going up by 2.9% recently. A crazy statistic is that his worth is now equal to around 3% of the entire French economy.
He has joined the most elite club in the world, a club which only Bill Gates and his $102.4 billion worth and Jeff Bezos with $155 billion were a part of.
Bill Gates amassed his wealth thanks to being the founder of Microsoft, one of the largest tech companies in the world. Today, less than 12.5% of his net worth comes from Microsoft shares though. The majority of his assets these days are held in his investment firm, Cascade, including a some assets in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate founded by Gates’ friend Warren Buffett.
Bezos’ impressive fortune is thanks to him being the founder, chairman, CEO and president of Amazon. Despite a recent divorce losing him tens of billions, thanks to the recent success of Amazon and its diversification in services, Bezos has maintained his title as richest person on earth.
In case you’re curious about just how rich Arnault is compared to some other known names, Zuckerberg ‘only’ has a worth of $70.2 billion and Musk has a $19.3 billion amount to his name.
Arnault, 70, and his family are among the legions of superrich whom pledged money for the reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Arnault said he was giving an impressive $650 million in April to the fire-damaged cathedral.
This act though hasn’t made him quite as charitable as others in his newfound club, with Bill Gates being one of the most charitable people on earth. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has gained more than $35 billion for charity.
If you want some scale for Arnault’s new wealth, you could buy 3,600 $25 million private islands, 33.3 billion Starbucks lattes, or buy every single NFL team three times over.
