The world’s richest man and woman are both French for the first time.

American tycoon Elon Musk, 51, has been dethroned as king of the Forbes billionaire list by the 74-year-old handbag and perfume magnate Bernard Arnault, who boasts a £169billion fortune.

Arnault’s luxury goods firm LVMH includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Tiffany&Co, and Moet & Chandon.

It’s the first time in several years the Forbes billionaire list has been headed up by wealth from luxury manufactured goods rather than tech.

The 69-year-old L’Oreal heiress and board member, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, is the highest-placed woman and comes in at 11th on the global list with a fortune of £64.6billion. 

Perfume magnate Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods firm LVMH includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Tiffany&Co, and Moet & Chandon

L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 69, is the highest-placed woman and comes in at 11th on the global list with a fortune of £64.6billion

American tycoon Elon Musk, 51, has been dethroned as king of the Forbes billionaire list

The beauty mogul’s vast wealth beats Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s £51billion fortune – which places him 16th on the list.

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The top spaces on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people, compiled every year, have for years been dominated by technology entrepreneurs. 

But tech’s less-appealing volatility in share value has seen luxury goods re-emerge triumphant, despite a global recession. 

Arnault’s net worth jumped from £60billion in 2020 to £170billion this year helped by a ‘pandemic-defying’ business performance.

Musk’s pricey £35billion acquisition of Twitter saw shares in his company Tesla drop as investors worried about its share value. 

Tesla eventually gained back much of its losses but is still selling at about half of what it was before Musk took over Twitter in October.

But Musk’s net worth fell to £144.5billion this year – £34billion less than it was last year, according to Forbes’s calculations, and lost him the coveted spot as the world’s richest man.

The Forbes list was determined on the basis of stock market prices on March 10 2023. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dropped to third place with £92billion after stepping down as CEO of the company.

Despite French business owners bagging the top spots, the United States still boasts the most billionaires, with 735 list members worth a collective £3.6trillion.

China, including Hong Kong and Macau, remains in second place with 562 billionaires worth £1.6billion. In total, Forbes counted 2,640 billionaires worlwide worth a staggering £9.8trillion.