Bernard Arnault is outpacing Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg in wealth gain this year after signs of a rebound in luxury demand boosted LVMH stock.

LVMH chief Bernard Arnault and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani—the world’s fifth- and eighteenth-wealthiest people—attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration events Monday, marking a pair of surprise billionaire appearances at the event attended by a cadre of moguls worth well over $1 trillion.

Mr Trump is more transactional than presidents before him, which increases the risk of cronyism and self-dealing. But America’s economy, including its technology industry, is too unwieldy and dynamic to petrify into an actual oligarchy, whatever diplomats and departing presidents say. ■

Bernard Arnault, billionaire chairman and CEO of global luxury goods company LVMH; such as Louis Vuitton. Posted: January 21, 2025 | Last updated: January 21, 2025

"I didn't want to get out of my seat because I didn't want to lose it," said one guest at President Trump's pre-inauguration Candlelight Dinner.

The world's richest accumulated massive wealth in 2024, which some speculate could reach even greater heights in the next few years.

But if Trump’s second inauguration looked vastly different than the scene eight years ago, it sounded extremely familiar. The dark tone of his 2017 inaugural address, with its famous reference to “American carnage,” was reprised in his 2025 speech, which for some reason had been hyped in the run-up to today’s event as “unifying.”

In total, billionaire wealth skyrocketed by $2 trillion, adding more than 200 individuals to this cohort. The accumulation of riches at the very top is going so unchecked that Oxfam estimates there will be five trillionaires within the coming decade.

The crowded dais in the Capitol Rotunda on Inauguration Day featured four of the world’s five wealthiest men, five U.S. presidents, tech titans and business moguls, and two foreign leaders with

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and three others are projected to become trillionaires over the next decade, further deepening global inequality as poverty levels remain stagnant.

"Elon and I have hugged it out," Dimon said, while praising Musk for running multiple high-profile companies such as Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.