It’s the ultimate lunch meeting. On June 16 in Paris, the world’s two wealthiest men were scheduled to dine together: entrepreneur Elon Musk, 51, and French executive Bernard Arnault, 74.
“I am having lunch with him, I know him of course,” Arnault revealed . “I think he is an exceptional entrepreneur.”
Joining the two was to be Antoine Arnault, the eldest son of the French billionaire. Together, Musk and Arnault have a combined wealth of $426 billion.
Tesla’s CEO is currently the richest person on the planet, with an estimated fortune of $229 billion as of June 15.
Musk’s net worth has grown by $92.4 billion this year, largely driven by the remarkable rise in Tesla’s stock. His wealth is primarily tied to his stakes in Tesla (TSLA) and his space exploration company, SpaceX.
Arnault holds the position of the second richest person globally, with an estimated net worth of $197 billion, an increase of $34.8 billion this year.
While Arnault may not be as widely recognized by the general public, his brands are household names—ranging from Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany to the champagne brand Veuve Clicquot.
All these luxury brands are part of LVMH (LVMUY), where Arnault serves as CEO and the largest individual shareholder.
The content of the conversation between Musk and Arnault remains a topic of speculation, as nothing has been disclosed. However, it’s possible that Musk’s microblogging platform, Twitter, could be a point of discussion. LVMH is among the world’s largest advertisers.
Twitter has experienced a significant loss of advertisers since Musk acquired it in October for $44 billion.
Brands are concerned that their ads might be associated with tweets promoting hate speech or false information because Musk, in the name of free speech, has removed many of the safeguards that were put in place by the previous Twitter management.
This hands-off approach has led to a resurgence of conspiracy theories on the platform, many of which Musk himself has propagated.
For instance, last October, Musk promoted fake news and a conspiracy theory related to the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked in his San Francisco home last October.
Many Democratic Party leaders, including Hillary Clinton, attributed the attack to growing political divisions in the U.S. and the influence of hate speech from certain politicians.
Musk, who had announced his support for the Republican Party a few months earlier, disagreed with this explanation. Instead, he suggested a different version of the attack, based on a conspiracy theory.
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk responded to Clinton.
He linked to an article from the *Santa Monica Observer*, which claimed the attack on Pelosi was due to an argument that escalated. Musk later deleted the post.
The *Santa Monica Observer* has a history of publishing false information, including a story falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton had died and that a body double was sent to debate Donald Trump during one of the 2016 presidential debates.
In March, Musk acknowledged that advertising revenue had dropped by as much as 50% since he took over Twitter.
The lunch between Musk and Arnault coincides with the American billionaire’s trip to Europe. Musk is currently assessing various countries that are competing to host Tesla’s second factory in Europe. Tesla already has a vehicle production plant near Berlin, Germany.
Italy—where Musk met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on June 16—Spain, and France are all vying for the new Tesla facility. After visiting France in mid-May, Musk returned to the country a month later.
He is the star attraction at VivaTech, a major European tech conference organized by the advertising agency Publicis Groupe and Les Echos, a business newspaper owned by Arnault.
Musk is scheduled to deliver a speech at the conference on June 16.
