As of February 1, the 10 richest people on the planet are worth a combined $1.44 trillion—nearly $30 billion less than a month earlier. And Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person.
The billionaire who had been at the top of the Forbes list for more than six months—Elon Musk—had an eventful January. On January 24, Tesla—run by Musk—announced during its earnings call that it expected “notably” slower growth in 2024.
That led to a 12% drop in Tesla’s share price the next day. Then on January 30, a Delaware judge ruled to void Musk’s nearly $51 billion pay package—a package that had been awarded in 2018.
In light of the ruling, Forbes discounted the package of options Musk had been awarded by 50%, shaving $25.5 billion off his fortune.
The combination of a weaker Tesla stock and the discountono the pay package pushed Musk from the world’s No. 1 richest to the second richest person on January 31, per Forbes’ calculations.
The world’s new No. 1 richest is Bernard Arnault of France, who’s been number two since June of last year (with a brief jump to No. 1 on January 26).
Last month Arnault’s luxury goods group LVMH announced a 9% increase in revenues for 2023, to $94 billion (86.2 billion Euros)—despite economic weakness in China and Europe.
Nine of the world’s top 10 richest people were wealthier on February 1 than they were a month ago. Together they are worth a whopping $1.44 trillion—down from nearly $1.47 trillion a month ago, dragged down by the falling fortune of Elon Musk.
Forbes has been keeping track of the world’s billionaires since 1987. Last year, we found 2,640 of them for our annual list. Throughout the year, we update their fortunes daily. Many billionaires hold much of their net worth in the stock of the company they founded or cofounded. As that stock price moves, their fortune moves along with it.
The two biggest gainers in the past month (in dollar terms) were Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, up $12.4 billion for the month, and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, up $10.1 billion during January.
The fortune of each is up due to increases in the share price of their respective companies.
Here are the 10 richest people on Earth as of February 1, 2024 at midnight Eastern time, according to Forbes.
Who are the top 10 richest people in the world?*
1. Bernard Arnault
2. Elon Musk
3. Jeff Bezos
4. Larry Ellison
5. Mark Zuckerberg
6. Warren Buffett
7. Bill Gates
8. Larry Page
9. Steve Ballmer
10. Sergey Brin
Source - Forbes