The world’s two richest people lunched in Paris on Friday.
Elon Musk brought his mother, Maye Musk, to share a meal with Bernard Arnault and two of his three sons — Antoine and Alexandre — at five-star hotel Cheval Blanc, part of the LVMH portfolio, ahead of the weekend.
Arnault, 74, is the CEO and controlling shareholder of LVMH, which consists of about 75 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., and Christian Dior.
The Frenchman is worth $197 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — and was demoted to the No. 2 spot just weeks ago after his fortune took a $11.2 billion hit when LVMH shares fell 5% in Paris.
The dip primed Musk to reclaim the No. 1 spot yet again, which he did when LVMH’s stock slid further on May 31.
The 51-year-old Tesla CEO, SpaceX boss and Twitter owner boasts a total net worth of $229 billion, the Index says.
Antoine posted a photo of the billionaire moguls on the hotel’s rooftop, and captioned it “THE picture.”
It’s unclear what the men discussed during their midday meal, though LVMH brands are known to spend big bucks across their social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
LVMH’s portfolio spent an estimated €9.5 million ($10.38 million) on social media marketing in 2022, according to data by Statista.
A secondary post included family members, including Musk’s 75-year-old mother, Maye, who was seen strutting down the runway for British Vogue and LuisaViaRoma’s “Runway Icons” show in Milan, Italy, just two days prior.
Musk, a Texas resident, is in the French capital to speak at the Viva Technology event, an annual gathering hosted by ad agency Publicis Groupe SA and LVMH-owned financial paper Les Echos.
Musk is among many other high-profile speakers on the lineup, which also boasts Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers and TIME boss Jessica Sibley.
Tickets to the four-day event, taking place June 14-17, start at €620 ($678 USD).
Though the Billionaires Index indicates Musk is far from strapped for cash, his social network venture can’t say the same.
Twitter’s finances have been dire since Musk bought the social media platform for $44 billion in October.
Most recently, the company is reportedly being evicted from its office in Boulder, Colo., after not paying rent the past two months.
According to a separate complaint filed in May, Twitter is also behind on nearly $100,000 in cleaning fees at its other offices in Colorado.
The company — which raked in $4.4 billion in revenue in 2022, most of which came from ads — is also facing litigation in San Francisco over $136,260 in unpaid rent.
Recently, advertisers have flocked from Twitter as they’ve become increasingly worried that the app will become chaotic under Musk.
By moving their marketing dollars elsewhere, Twitter has suffered a 59% drop in US ad revenue, which usually makes up most of the platform’s profits.
Recently, the struggling company has frequently fallen short of its sales projections, sometimes by up to 30%, and the figures aren’t predicted to improve anytime soon.
On top of that, Twitter has had to shell out billions in interest expenses on a $13 billion loan, including about $600 million on capital expenditures.
The Musk-owned company is also being asked to dish out an additional $100,000 in back pay to eleven former janitors who used to clean Twitter’s New York City offices who claim they were terminated in violation of the Displaced Building Service Workers Protection Act.
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