This is a “first”, according to the annual Forbes ranking for 2023 published on Tuesday. Bernard Arnault, CEO of the world leader in luxury LVMH, and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress of L’Oréal, are, with their family, the richest man and woman in the world. In 2022, Bernard Arnault ranked third in the annual ranking dominated by Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, Twitter or SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.
But last December, the French billionaire had dethroned them by becoming with his family the biggest fortune in the world, according to the ranking “in real time” established by the magazine, according in particular to stock market prices and exchange rates. In the world top 2023, his fortune is estimated at 211 billion dollars – Forbes specifying to have “calculated the net fortunes using the stock prices and the exchange rates of Friday March 10, 2023”.
Dual Performance
“For the first time in the history of the ranking, the richest man and woman in France are also the richest in the world. A double performance which testifies to the vigor of the French economy despite the successive crises that our country is going through, directly or indirectly”, highlights Forbes France in its press release.
Elon Musk takes second place in the world rankings, with a fortune estimated at 180 billion dollars, ahead of Jeff Bezos (114 billion), Larry Ellison, co-founder of the software publisher Oracle (107 billion) and the man of Warren Buffett business (106 billion). Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (and her family) – eleventh richest in the world with 80.5 billion dollars – is for the third consecutive year the richest woman in the world. She had also been in 2019, succeeding her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, the first woman in the ranking in 2016 and 2017.
François Pinault in the standings
In France, Forbes lists a total of 43 billionaires, including seven women, “for a total fortune having increased by 20.6% since 2022”. Behind Bernard Arnault and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, are François Pinault, founder of the luxury group Kering, then the brothers Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, owners of the Chanel house, in fourth and fifth positions.
Ranks sixth “the first billionaire in the ranking from another horizon” than luxury and beauty, Emmanuel Besnier, boss of Lactalis. The children of Jacques Saadé, founder of the CMA CGM maritime transport group, Rodolphe, Tanya and Jacques Jr, are respectively in 8th, 9th and 10th place. The “two enemy brothers of mobile telephony”, Xavier Niel (18th) and Patrick Drahi (22nd), owners of Free and SFR, are both down in the rankings.