Kanye West drops off the billionaires list, Elon Musk falls from top spot

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, fell off Forbes’ billionaires list after losing about $1.6 billion of his net worth when he lost several business deals after making antisemitic comments. Ye is not the only person to fall off the list. In fact, 254 one-time billionaires are no longer, Forbes says.

Ye had an estimated net worth of $2 billion in 2022, but lost $1.5 billion when Adidas terminated their partnership. He didn’t make it to the 2023 billionaires list, but he still has a large net worth – about $400 million, Forbes says – comprised of cash, real estate and the value of his music. He also owns 5% of Skims, the shapewear brand founded by his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, with whom he has four children. 

Forbes says there are 2,640 billionaires in the world and nearly half of them are poorer than they were in 2022, with inflation, a drop in crypto and the war in Ukraine contributing to many of their losses. 

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, also fell off the list after being arrested in the Bahamas last December for allegedly cheating investors out of billions of dollars. He has been extradited to the U.S. and faces 13 charges. 

Other notable people who fell off the list include Andy Fang and Stanley Tang, cofounders of DoorDash, and Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank. 

Bruce Nordstrom, former chairman of the eponymous department store, dropped off the 2023 list, according to Forbes, but as of April 4, his net worth was back up to $1 billion. 

Elon Musk’s net worth also dropped – although he is still very much a billionaire. Musk often holds the title of “richest man in the world,” but this week, he dropped to the No. 2 spot, according to Forbes. 

As of April 6, Musk has a net worth of $188.2 billion, while Bernard Arnault and his family, who own the luxury fashion conglomerate LVMH, take the top spot with $227 billion. 

Musk’s net worth often fluctuates and it has dipped several times during his tumultuous takeover of Twitter, during which he sold large amounts of his Tesla shares to buy the social media company. He now owns 74% of Twitter, according to Forbes. 

In November, his net worth dropped to an estimated $195.6 billion, hitting its lowest point for the year, according to Forbes. That was the second time since Oct. 1, 2021, that his net worth dipped below $200 billion – except for a brief drop to $199 billion in May 2022, Forbes reports. 

In January, it was estimated he had lost $182 billion of his net worth since November 2021 and that massive drop actually earned him a Guinness World Record – for the largest loss of personal fortune in history.