How did Louis Vuitton’s Bernard Arnault earn more than drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s entire empire in just 3 months?

Luxury CEO Bernard Arnault earned more than US$5 billion in just three days, according to Forbes.

The LVMH conglomerate he manages enjoyed a sudden stock surge, following the release of an earnings report showing strong second-quarter sales, on October 9 – adding a total of US$5.1 billion to its CEO’s holdings in just 72 hours.

Most of Arnault’s wealth comes from the 41 per cent stake in LVMH he controls through his company Christian Dior, according to his Bloomberg profile. Shares in LVMH – which holds around 60 brands including fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Givenchy and Kenzo – are up over 50 per cent in 2019 so far, according to Forbes.

Here are five facts that show how fast Arnault’s fortune has grown

1. In January, Arnault was ranked as the world’s fourth richest person – fast forward six months to mid-July and he had jumped two major spots

The 70-year-old was the fourth-richest person alive at the start of 2019, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes’ The World’s Billionaires List. Since then, he has made so much money that he displaced both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to rank second, for a time. He has since returned to third place on the real-time Bloomberg ranking.

His net worth was US$68.6 billion on January 1, according to Bloomberg. Now, he is ranked third on the same list and his net worth stands at US$96.3 billion.

2. In the first three months of 2019, Arnault added more than US$14 billion to his net worth – roughly the equivalent of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s entire empire

By March, Arnault had already added more than US$14 billion to his net worth, overtaking Buffett’s wealth. Law enforcement estimates that El Chapo’s entire drug empire is worth US$14 billion, Business Insider previously reported.

3. Arnault is one of only six people to ever rank second on Forbes' list of the richest billionaires