Billionaire Elon Musk has lost his title as the richest man in the world.

According to a real-time list of richest people in the world by Forbes, the Twitter chief executive officer (CEO) is now the second richest person, behind Bernard Arnault, the CEO of Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH and his family.

Musk was listed as the richest man back in 2021, taking the title from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The SpaceX CEO reigned supreme until today (December 7), when he was dethroned by the 73-year-old French businessman and his family.

At the time he was named the richest man, Musk was close to the US$300-billion mark, with a net worth of US$271 billion.

But, reports are that his purchase of the social media app caused investors to doubt his capabilities.

When Musk closed the deal for Twitter, investors began dumping their shares in the 51-year-old’s electronic car company, Tesla. Consequently, his US$44-billion purchase of Twitter resulted in his net worth dropping below US$200 billion in early November.

Currently, Musk’s net worth is US$184.6 billion, which is a decline of 2.36 per cent, compared to Arnault and his family’s net worth of US$185.1 billion, which rose by 0.04 per cent.

Other billionaires among the top five richest in the world are: Gautam Adan, an Indian industrialist and third richest with a net worth US$134 billion.; Bezos, who is in fourth place with a net worth of US$111 billion; and Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, in fifth with a net worth of US$106 billion.

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