Bill Gates has never ranked lower than No. 2 in the seven-year history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That run ended Tuesday when the Microsoft Corp. co-founder dropped to No. 3 behind France’s Bernard Arnault.

LVMH, Arnault’s luxury-goods maker, advanced to a record in Paris and pushed his net worth to $107.6 billion and ahead of Gates by more than $200 million. Arnault has added $39 billion to his fortune in 2019 alone, the biggest individual gain by far among the 500 people in Bloomberg’s ranking.

Arnault, 70, joined Gates and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, in the most exclusive wealth club last month, when his fortune surpassed $100 billion for the first time. The trio’s collective wealth exceeds the individual market values of almost every company in the S&P 500 Index, including Walmart Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Walt Disney Co.
This year has been particularly good to French tycoons, with Arnault, Kering SA’s Francois Pinault and cosmetics heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers tacking on a combined $57 billion.

Arnault and his family are among luxury titans who pledged more than $650 million in April for the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral after fire ravaged the landmark church. He controls about half of Paris-based LVMH through a family holding company and also owns a 97% stake in Christian Dior, the fashion house founded three years before his birth in 1949.

Arnault entered the luxury-goods market in 1984 by acquiring a textile group that owned Christian Dior. Four years later, he sold the company’s other businesses and used the proceeds to buy a controlling stake in LVMH. His art collection of modern and contemporary paintings includes pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.

Were it not for Gates’s philanthropic giving, he’d still be the world’s richest person. Gates has donated more than $35 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bezos’s net worth is up slightly this year to $125 billion, even after reaching a divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos that made her the world’s fourth-richest woman.

Hmm

I wish I could just be number 100 after him

clive2u:
I wish I could just be number 100 after him

Hmmmm....
One vision at a time. I have to first of all dethrone dangote as the richest man in Africa.

clive2u:
I wish I could just be number 100 after him

Stop wishing. Start doing.

Let me console you, research has shown that above 75,000 dollars a year, more money does not make you happier

ThothHermes:
Stop wishing. Start doing.

Let me console you, research has shown that above 75,000 dollars a year, more money does not make you happier

let me have the money first

ThothHermes:
Stop wishing. Start doing.

Let me console you, research has shown that above 75,000 dollars a year, more money does not make you happier

Source or reference to such research

clive2u:
I wish I could just be number 100 after him

Number 500 sef is more than ok for me

Bezos is a money wizard

My favorite is still Bill gates any day anytime.

His dedication to philanthropy, is awesome.

Even his products always promote affordability over luxury.

Donexy16:





Number 500 sef is more than ok for me

We will get there

clive2u:
We will get there

Amen!