Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault each gain $13bn in one week as stock markets hit record highs - Forbes

By Hank Tucker

The S&P 500 index closed at a record high on Friday for the fourth consecutive week, lifting the fortunes of most of the world’s wealthiest people and putting the centibillionaire club on the brink of welcoming an unprecedented eighth member.

Nobody benefited more from the bullish market than LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and Tesla cofounder Elon Musk, the second- and third-richest people in the world, respectively, whose fortunes both swelled by about $13 billion this week. Musk enjoyed a $12.3 billion jump in a single day on Tuesday to move into second place—though Arnault leapfrogged him again on Friday to retake the No. 2 spot in the world, with his $181.6 billion net worth just ahead of Musk’s $179.7 billion fortune, Forbes estimates. Tesla’s 9.3% gain for the week outperformed the S&P 500’s more modest 1.4% increase. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which also closed Friday at a record high, rose by 1.2%.

Tesla’s jolt early in the week came after Canaccord Genuity analyst Jed Dorsheimer more than doubled his price target for the stock from $419 to $1,071 per share. (Tesla closed Friday at $740.) Dorsheimer compared Tesla’s potential in the renewable energy industry to how Apple has dominated consumer tech, and said Tesla could expand its already strong brand for electric vehicles into solar energy and the broader energy storage market. Tesla’s volatile stock remains 16% below its January highs, but has rebounded 31% from its 2021 low point in March.

LVMH shares also had a standout week, rising by 7.8% to an all-time high. Fueled by high sales expectations and a slew of acquisitions and new partnerships, including LVMH’s $15.8 billion acquisition of luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. that closed in January, Arnault’s $181.6 billion net worth has grown by more than $100 billion since March 2020.

Both Musk and Arnault narrowed the gap on Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, who finished the week worth $197.8 billion, $1.4 billion higher than last week. Amazon’s stock is inching closer to the record high it notched last September, when Bezos became the first person ever with a $200 billion fortune.

Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are approaching a slightly less exclusive milestone. Page is close to becoming the world’s eighth centibillionaire—meaning someone worth at least $100 billion—a week after Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett reclaimed a 12-figure fortune and Oracle founder Larry Ellison crossed that threshold for the first time. Page’s net worth now sits at $99.1 billion, $500 million higher than last week, and Brin isn’t far behind at $96 billion.