Bernard Arnault and his family are ranked No. 7 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $171 billion. Arnault is chairman and chief executive of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company.
Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, in northern France. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic household, studied civil engineering and mathematics at the École Polytechnique, and graduated in 1971.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 7, with $171 billion, listed as “Bernard Arnault & family”
- Source of wealth: LVMH
From Real Estate to Dior
Arnault joined his father’s civil-engineering company, Ferret-Savinel, after graduating, and shifted its focus to real estate. In 1984 he acquired the struggling textile group Boussac Saint-Frères, which owned the fashion house Christian Dior. His aggressive style of restructuring earned him the nickname “The Terminator”, as he revived Dior and sold off other assets.
Creating LVMH
- 1987: he played a key role in forming LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) through the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy
- Growth: acquisitions took the group into fashion, jewellery, watches and wine
- Record value: in May 2021 LVMH reached a market value of €313 billion ($382 billion), making it the largest company in the eurozone
- Tiffany: in 2019 he planned to acquire the jeweller Tiffany & Co. for about $16.2 billion
Arts and Philanthropy
After the Notre-Dame fire in 2019 he donated €200 million towards rebuilding. In 2006 he began the project of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a contemporary art centre designed by architect Frank Gehry.
Family
Arnault has five children: Delphine and Antoine, from his marriage to Anne Dewavrin, and Alexandre, Frédéric and Jean, with his wife, the Canadian-born pianist Hélène Mercier.
Why It Matters
LVMH’s brands, from Louis Vuitton to Dior and Tiffany, make it a bellwether for global luxury demand, and Arnault’s family controls the group.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: Bernard Arnault speaking at the École Polytechnique, March 2017. Photo: Jérémy Barande / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
