Move over, Elon Musk: who’s the richest billionaire in 2023? Bernard Arnault takes first place with LVMH, with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Mukesh Ambani among the top 10 too

Apr 19 , 2023

Mukesh Ambani, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among the world’s richest people in 2023. Photos: @mukesh.ambaniii, @thisisbillgates/Instagram; TNS; AFP; Getty Images

Elon Musk, who runs Tesla, SpaceX and recently announced AI ‘TruthGPT’, was replaced by LVMH’s Bernard Arnault as world’s richest man when his buy-out of Twitter led to a drop in Tesla stock

Mukesh Ambani is also Asia’s richest man thanks to Reliance Industries, while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, media mogul Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are also doing very well for themselves

When news broke last year that Bernard Arnault, the brains behind luxury powerhouse LVMH, had taken over Elon Musk as the richest person on the planet, the internet was taken by storm.

Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, speaks during a news conference to present the 2022 annual results of LVMH in Paris, France, on January 26. Photo: Reuters

Musk had previously held the top global position for over a year until his net worth dropped due to Tesla shares going down as a result of his pricey US$44 billion Twitter buy-out deal.

Elon Musk bought Twitter in a US$44 billion deal. Photo: Reuters

While it’s important to remember that wealth can fluctuate at any given moment, Forbes’ recently released “Richest People in the World” ranking gives a strong indication on the who’s who for this year’s billionaires. The publication noted 2,640 10-figure fortunes, down from 2,668 last year. The United States still has the most billionaires with 735 individuals, followed by China (including Hong Kong and Macau) coming in second with 562 billionaires.

So let’s see who made the cut in 2023, according to Forbes’ calculations.

10. Steve Ballmer – US$81 billion

Microsoft’s then CEO Steve Ballmer gestures during his keynote address at the Microsoft Build conference in San Francisco, California, in June 2013. Photo: Reuters

Since retiring as CEO of Microsoft, Ballmer bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for US$2 billion. The 67-year-old still holds shares in Redmond, which makes the Windows operating system, Surface tablet computers and Xbox game consoles, states Bloomberg.

9. Mukesh Ambani – US$83 billion

Mukesh Ambani is Asia’s richest person. Photo: @mukesh.ambaniiix/Instagram

Asia’s richest person runs the highly successful Reliance Industries, which has branches in oil and gas, petrochemicals, retail and telecoms. Last year, the Mumbai-based 65-year-old revealed his succession plan, putting the conglomerate’s future in the hands of his three kids, Akash, Isha and Anant.