It's not Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.
The man behind luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy has been named the richest person in the world.
According to the 2024 Forbes list, Bernard Arnault and his family have a net worth of $233,000,000,000 (£185 billion) – an amount higher than the GDP of countries including Kuwait, Greece and Hungary.
The 75-year-old’s LVMH empire encompasses 75 of the world’s most successful fashion and cosmetic brands.
He is worth almost $40 billion more than second-placed Elon Musk, whose wealth is notoriously volatile due to the fact his companies – including Tesla, SpaceX and social media site X – sometimes fluctuate wildly in value.
In third place is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $194 billion – a mere billion less than Musk.
Joining his fellow tech businessmen at the top of the Forbes list is Mark Zuckerberg, who created Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19 and takes the fourth slot with a net worth of $177 billion.
Combined, the top 10 are worth more than $1.5 trillion, more than the GDP of all but 13 of the countries in the world.
All are men, all but Mr Zuckerberg are older than 50, and all but Mukesh Ambani – chairman of Indian multinational Reliance Industries – are white.
You have to scroll all the way down to 21st place before coming across a woman.
She is 74-year-old Alice Walton, worth $72.3 billion, who is the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton.
And it takes an even longer time to reach the first UK-based person on the list: Michael Platt, CEO of Bluecrest Capital Management, who comes in 104th with a net worth of $18 billion.
The other two British names among the Forbes billionaires are Ineos CEO and part-owner of Manchester United Jim Ratcliffe, who takes joint 111th place with $16.5 billion, and vacuum magnate James Dyson, who is 140th with $13.6 billion.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
