Twitter boss and tech billionaire Elon Musk has fallen to second in the rankings of the super-rich. In the "Bloomberg Billionaires" and "Forbes" rankings, the previous leader took second place on Wednesday behind the French entrepreneur Bernard Arnault from the luxury goods group LVMH. Musk lost the title of richest person in the world for the first time since 2021, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

According to Bloomberg estimates, Musk's personal wealth has fallen by more than $100 billion to $163.6 billion since January. Arnault's fortune is estimated by Bloomberg at $170.8 billion. The 73-year-old is chairman of the French luxury empire LVMH, which includes fashion icons such as Dior and Louis Vuitton and champagne brands such as Moët

Musk is also well behind Arnault ($188.6 billion) in the "Forbes" list with an estimated fortune of $176.8 billion. The information in the billionaire charts is mostly based on publicly available information on assets such as stocks, real estate, art objects and other luxury goods. They are therefore not exact and sometimes also controversial.

Twitter buying and Tesla stock crash

According to Bloomberg, one of the reasons why the 51-year-old tech billionaire fell on the rankings was the purchase of the short message service Twitter. The shares of the electric car manufacturer Tesla have also fallen by more than 50 percent this year, it said.

Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion at the end of October. The service was already in the red before the takeover. After the sale, Musk lamented a slump in sales because some major advertisers suspended ads on the platform. They worry their ads could appear alongside offensive tweets if Musk relaxes the rules, as announced.