Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault are worth a combined $400 billion — here are the routes they took to achieve mega-wealth

Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault have a combined net worth of around $400 billion.
Bezos and Arnault are the world’s richest people, topping Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Despite both amassing vast fortunes, the ways they built their wealth differed significantly.

Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault are the world’s two richest people, with a combined net worth of around $400 billion.

Arnault, the owner of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, is ranked first on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $202 billion. He’s the CEO and chair of the French luxury conglomerate with companies spanning fashion, jewelry, watches, perfume, and alcohol, including brands Tiffany & Co and Dom Pérignon.

Amazon founder Bezos is ranked second on the index, with a net worth of $197 billion. Although both billionaires have built their own empires, how the pair acquired wealth is vastly different.

This is how they made their fortunes:

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Zo hebben Bernard Arnault en Jeff Bezos hun enorme vermogen vergaard

Jeff Bezos’ first job was at a McDonald’s.

The billionaire said in a 2001 interview with Fast Company that his job at a McDonald's restaurant in Miami was "really hard."

"They wouldn't let me anywhere near the customers. This was my acned-teenager stage. They were like, 'Hmm, why don't you work in the back?'" Bezos said.

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Bezos majored in computer science at Princeton University.

A book called "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon" said he joined a telecommunications startup called Fitel after graduating from Princeton. He then quit Fitel and went to work for Bankers Trust as a product manager, where he focused on selling software pension-fund clients.

After two years at Bankers Trust, he joined the hedge fund D. E. Shaw, and became a senior vice president after only four years.

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He left his hedge fund job in 1994 to start what would become Amazon.

Bezos decided books were the best products to start selling online. He then started Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle.

Amazon sold books to people in all 50 US states and more than 45 countries in the first month of its launch.

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Amazon went public in 1997.

In March 1997, Amazon had about 80,000 average daily visits, TechCrunch reported. It had only 256 employees that year.

In the years that followed, Amazon extended its product range beyond books to include electronics, tools, toys, CDs, and more.

Bezos invested $250,000 in Google in 1998, before its IPO in 2004.
Time Magazine then named Bezos as its Person of the Year in 1999 after Amazon rapidly grew.

Bezos had the same annual base salary of $81,840 for decades while he was CEO, but his annual total compensation for many years exceeded $1 million, owing to costs related to security and business travel.

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Bezos founded space tourism company Blue Origin in 2000.

He also bought The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013.

He became the world's richest person for the first time in 2017, briefly overtaking Microsoft's Bill Gates. That same year, he said he'd sell $1 billion worth of Amazon stock annually to fund Blue Origin, per Reuters.

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Bezos announced he was stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021

After spending 27 years leading the company, Bezos announced he was transitioning to become Amazon's executive chairman.

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Amazon hit nearly $575 billion in net sales in 2023.

The company has hundreds of fulfillment centers around the world. It sells millions of products, including appliances, clothing, groceries, and toiletries, and it also offers cloud computing services.

Bezos reportedly owns a $500 million megayacht, which set sail last summer. But in 2022, he pledged to give away most of his wealth to charity, CNN reported at the time.

Amazon had a market cap of $1.8 trillion in February.

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Arnault started out working for his father's construction company after college.

After studying engineering at the École Polytechnique, Arnault went to work for his father's construction firm Ferret-Savinel, Bloomberg reported.

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Arnault acquired Agache-Willot-Boussac in 1984, which was verging on bankruptcy.

The company owned brands like French department store Bon Marché and Christian Dior, The New York Times reported. He renamed the firm Financière Agache and kickstarted a turnaround effort, which helped it earn $1.9 billion in revenue just a few years later, the Times reported.

He bought a chunk of capital of the French luxury fashion house Celine in the late 1980s. Years later, it was integrated into the LVMH group.

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He went on to become LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s largest shareholder.

Champagne company Dom Pérignon was one of the initial brands part of Moët Hennessy, which later merged with Louis Vuitton to create LVMH in 1987.

He spent $2.6 billion buying up shares to become the company's largest shareholder and eventually its chairman and CEO by 1989, per The Times.

Arnault quietly built a 20.2% stake in Hermès in the years that followed through its subsidiaries and equity swaps, Bloomberg reported.

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His 5 children also work for LVMH and its brands.

In 2011, he acquired the Italian jewelry brand Bulgari when it was struggling, Reuters reported.

LVMH now owns more than 75 brands, its website says.

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The luxury goods group made €86.2 billion in 2023.

Arnault said in January, when its earnings were released, "Our performance in 2023 illustrates the exceptional appeal of our Maisons and their ability to spark desire despite a year affected by economic and geopolitical challenges."

It seems like Arnault has no plans to slow down. He told The Financial Times in 2019, "we're just getting started."

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