Elon Musk briefly loses top spot on Forbes billionaire rich list

Later in the day, the Tesla owner was back on top at $184.9 billion, followed by Bernard Arnault and family at $184.7 billion

With US tech stocks sliding as interest rates and recession fears rise, the fortune of Elon Musk, left, briefly fell below that of Bernard Arnault and family. AFP

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, briefly lost his top spot on Forbes' billionaire list on Wednesday to Bernard Arnault, whose family own the world's leading luxury group, LVMH.

With US tech stocks sliding as interest rates and recession fears rise, the fortune of Tesla owner Mr Musk briefly fell below that of the Arnault family.

But later in the day, Mr Musk was back on top at $184.9 billion, followed by Mr Arnault and his family at $184.7 billion.

Indian businessman Gautam Adani was in third place at $134.8 billion, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos fourth at $111.3 billion.

Mr Arnault had also topped the Forbes list for several hours in 2021.

His LVMH group, with includes dozens of brands including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Kenzo, has continued to post strong revenue and profit growth despite the latest global economic headwinds.

Mr Musk's fortune is primarily tied to the share price of Tesla and the entrepreneur has been at the centre of controversy after having taken over Twitter in late October.

He also owns space exploration company SpaceX.

The other major wealth ranking compiled by financial data provider Bloomberg also has Mr Musk and Mr Arnault running nearly neck and neck.

Bloomberg's ranking, calculated after US markets closed on Tuesday, had Mr Musk in the lead at $178.9 billion, followed by Mr Arnault at $165.1 billion.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report