Jeff Bezos is locked in a tug-of-war with French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault for the title of world’s richest person, with each of them temporarily grabbing the top spot in recent days.
Arnault — head of LVMH, the luxury empire that owns Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Dom Perignon — held the title as of midday Tuesday as LVMH’s stock closed 0.7 percent higher on the Paris stock exchange while Amazon shares on the Nasdaq were recently flat, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
Both Arnault and Bezos currently command fortunes of about $188.3 billion, although Arnault has a slight edge over Bezos, according to Forbes.
Arnault on Monday morning had first overtaken Bezos — who has spent most of the past year in the No. 1 spot, trading it occasionally with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. By Monday afternoon, however, Amazon stock had risen by 1.3 percent compared to LVMH’s 1.2 percent, putting Bezos back on top until early Tuesday.
The LVMH conglomerate includes bauble-selling retail giant Tiffany.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
The pair are followed by Musk, whose net worth is currently pegged at $151.4 billion following a recent drop in Tesla shares; scandal-plagued Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose net worth
