Europe’s richest man overtook Elon Musk as world’s wealthiest — ‘wolf in cashmere’

He is so rich that it wasn’t so long ago he overtook Elon Musk as the richest person on Earth. But while Musk’s name is now known all over the world and he was even part of Donald Trump’s White House, you may never have heard of the man known as “the wolf in cashmere”. 

But while Bernard Arnault might be far less noisy than the owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX, he owns brands which are arguably even more well-known. Arnault is the chairman and CEO of the LVMH empire, which owns 75 brands including Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Tiffany, Dior, Moët & Chandon, Hennessy, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Glenmorangie, Bulgari, Tag Heuer and Hublot.

As of December 2025, Forbes ranks him as the fifth wealthiest person alive, with a net worth $192bn. As well as LVMH, he also has a holding company, Agache, which backs a venture capital firm with investments in businesses like Netflix and TikTok parent company ByteDance.

LVMH was the lead sponsor of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the firm and Arnault himself contributed 200 million Euros to the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, which reopened in December 2024.

Arnault’s five children all work at LVMH but the 76-year-old Frenchman didn’t start out as a fashion mogul, beginning his career at his father’s construction firm before a short spell in property development. His trajectory shifted when he acquired the struggling Boussac Saint-Freres, Christian Dior’s parent company, in the 1980s.

After his initial foray into the luxury sector, Arnault swiftly gained notoriety for his ruthless business tactics, leading to him becoming known as “the terminator”.

His unwavering belief in the luxury goods sector has always been evident. Recalling a discussion with Steve Jobs to the New York Times, he remarked: “Steve Jobs once asked me for some advice about retail, but I said ‘I am not sure at all we are in the same business’. I don’t know if we will still use Apple products in 25 years, but I am sure we will still be drinking Dom Pérignon.”

His fortune grew exponentially following the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennesey. Over the next four decades, he began to dominate the luxury goods sector, acquiring brands such as Bulgari, Belvedere, Kenxo, Dom Perignon, Givenchy, Tag Heuer and French beauty chain Sephora, which has exploded in popularity recently.

His companies have continued to thrive even after a pandemic, Brexit and the Russia–Ukraine war, with LVMH reporting revenue of $95 billion in 2023 and $88bn in 2024. He was briefly propelled past Elon Musk to become the world’s richest man during this period. He is now ranked fifth in Forbes list of the richest people on earth, behind Musk, Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) but ahead of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He is one of only two non-Americans in the top 10, along with Spaniard Amancio Ortega, the owner of Zara.

Arnault is known for his ruthless business tactics, having been involved in a longstanding public feud with rival Francois Pinault, the founder of direct competitor Kering, owner of Yves St Laurent. According to Forbes, the rivalry dates back to 1999 when LVMH lost to Kering in the battle to acquire Gucci, a defeat Arnault has reportedly never forgotten.

A connoisseur of the arts, Arnault boasts an extensive collection of some of the world’s finest works, including pieces by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.

The French tycoon also has a penchant for high-end cars, with his collection reportedly featuring a $3.3million Bugatti Chiron, a $1.5m Ferrari and a $1m Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf.

Given his extraordinary wealth, it’s no surprise that Arnault mingles with the elite, enjoying tennis matches with Roger Federer and frequently meeting with Donald Trump and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2003, he was even photographed greeting Vladimir Putin and guiding him around the LVMH-owned Château Cheval Blanc vineyard in France.

In September, Arnault said that a new wealth tax being propsed in France that could cost him more than €1bn (£817m) would be deadly for France’s economy. The idea of a 2% wealth tax had steadily gained ground in France because of a political crisis, with the government trying to push through unpopular budget cuts, but Arnault said a 2% wealth tax on all assets “aims to destroy the liberal economy, the only one that works for the good of all”. His face appeared on placards being held aloft by protesters.

In the summer, LVMH announced it was pressing ahead with two major developments on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, tightening its grip on one of the world’s most exclusive retail corridors. The firm is planning a new Tiffany & Co flagship store and, just a block away, a big new Louis Vuitton store. This is despite headwinds including higher US tariffs on European goods and what it described in July as softening demand in key markets such as China and Japan.