Elon Musk has reclaimed his place as the world's richest person after a rollercoaster 2022 that resulted in his wealth plummeting amid a sell-off of technology stocks and numerous controversies related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Mr Musk, co-founder of Tesla and also the owner of SpaceX, was worth $187 billion when markets closed on Monday, nudging aside Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury group LVMH, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The centibillionaire, 51, has added $50.1 billion, or 36.6 per cent, to his personal fortune since the beginning of the year.
Watch: Who is billionaire Elon Musk?
Mr Arnault now has a net worth of $185 billion. So far this year, he has added $23.3 billion to his fortune.
The majority of Mr Musk’s fortune is tied to Tesla stock, which has jumped 92.07 per cent this year to trade at $207.63 on Monday.
However, the stock is still down by nearly half its value compared with January 2022, when it was trading at $399.93.
In January, Mr Musk broke the world record for the biggest wealth loss in history after shedding $182 billion from his net worth since November 2021, according to a report by Guinness World Records.
In 2022 alone, the father of 10 shed a whopping $138 billion from his net worth — almost equivalent to the gross domestic product of Hungary — resulting in Mr Musk losing his world’s richest crown for the first time in 14 months on December 12.
Mr Musk started 2023 with a net worth of $138 billion, a sharp drop from the peak of his wealth of $320 billion in 2021, Forbes magazine data shows.
He made his first millions in the 1990s, when he sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300m. He then launched X.com, an online payment system that eventually became PayPal, which he sold to eBay for $1.5bn in 2002.
Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos remains in third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $117 billion.
The world's richest people — in pictures
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Bernard Arnault, 73, is chairman and chief executive of LVMH, which owns 70 fashion and beauty brands including Louis Vuitton. He’s worth $186.2bn. AFP -
Elon Musk, 51, chairman of Tesla, SpaceX and now the owner of Twitter. He's worth $181.3bn. Reuters -
Gautam Adani, 60, is chairman of India’s Adani Group, which controls ports, airports, electricity generation and property, among other ventures. He’s worth $134bn. Reuters -
Jeff Bezos, 58, is the founder of Amazon shopping website and is worth $113.8bn. AFP -
Warren Buffett, 92, is a titan of the financial world, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and worth $108.1bn. AP -
Bill Gates, 67, founded Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s now worth $106.4bn. Ruel Pableo for The National -
Larry Ellison, 78, is founder and chief technology officer of software company Oracle. He’s worth $103.9bn. AFP -
Mukesh Ambani, 65, is chairman of India’s Reliance Industries and is worth $92.8bn. Bloomberg -
Carlos Slim, 82, is Mexico’s richest man and his family owns America Movil, the largest telecoms company in Latin America. He is worth $81.8bn. AP -
Steve Ballmer, 66, former chief executive of Microsoft and owner of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers, is worth $81.7bn. AP
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the world's fourth-richest person with a personal fortune of $114 billion and Warren Buffett remains in fifth place with a net worth of $106 billion.
Until January, embattled Indian tycoon Gautam Adani held the third-place spot.
However, he has fallen to 32nd place as the market value of the Adani group of companies continues to plummet following a scathing report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Mr Adani now has a net worth of $37.7 billion.
Top 5 richest people in the world
- Elon Musk — $187 billion
- Bernard Arnault — $185 billion
- Jeff Bezos — $117 billion
- Bill Gates — $114 billion
- Warren Buffett — $106 billion
