Elon Musk is back on top again.
The CEO of Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX and the owner of Twitter became the world’s richest person Wednesday, overtaking French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, who had been the world’s No. 1 richest since December 2022. Musk is now worth an estimated $215.9 billion as of Wednesday morning, putting him $700 million ahead of Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH.
A stunning surge in the price of Tesla stock this year lifted Musk–who owns 23% of the electric car company, including options–back to the top spot. Tesla shares have risen more than 110% since the beginning of 2023, helping Musk add nearly $70 billion to his fortune since early January.
Musk recently finished a short visit to China–his first to the country since before the Covid-19 pandemic–and met with some high level government officials, including the foreign minister and the minister of industry and information technology. Tesla watchers reportedly see this as a good sign–that Musk is refocusing on the carmaker after months spent managing affairs at Twitter, which he bought last year for $44 billion.
“Playing nice in the sandbox in Beijing is something the Street is laser focused on to make sure there are no disruptions to Tesla’s expansion and tentacles within China for the coming years as this remains the #1 EV market in the world,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note.
In late January, Tesla posted its best-ever quarterly revenue and profits for the fourth quarter of 2022, news that sent the stock higher. For the first quarter of 2023, the carmaker had $2.5 billion in profits, down from $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022. Tesla has been cutting the price of some of its vehicles, presumably to meet Musk’s vision of making its cars more affordable.
While Tesla shares have been on a tear, LVMH has moved the opposite direction. In late April, the luxury goods conglomerate-whose brands include Bulgari, Givenchy, Sephora and Tiffany & Co.–became the first European company to reach a market capitalization of $500 billion. Shares then fell about 7% in May, shaving more than $20 billion off Arnault’s fortune.