LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault has warned the conflict in the Middle East could cause a ‘world catastrophe’ if it does not come to an end.
Speaking at LVMH‘s annual shareholders meeting yesterday, Arnault spoke about the severity of the crisis in the Middle East and its impact on his business.
‘Either it’ll be a world catastrophe with very serious and very negative economic impact, in which case, who can say how 2026 will unfold, or it will be resolved more rapidly in some shape or form that we all hope for, even if it doesn’t seem to be easy, in which case, business will recover and resume their normal course,’ he said.
This comes the US and Iran are holding rival blockades on the Strait of Hormuz, a leading global trade route which sees around 20 per cent of global seaborne oil travel travel through it daily.
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US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended by three weeks. Trump extended the ceasefire between the US and Iran indefinitely on Tuesday as talk between the two nations continue to bring an end to the war.
The Middle East conflict had a negative impact of 1 per cent on organic growth at LVMH, cutting quarterly growth in half, the business reported last week. Sales at LVMH businesses suffered in March, partly as a result of the Iran war, which hindered the company’s growth.
Arnault is the wealthiest person in France, with a fortune of $148.2 billion, according to Forbes. LVMH, the driving force behind his fortune, owns over 75 well-known luxury brands, including Dior, Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton.
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The French multibillionaire has is known for maintaining a fairly quiet public image, often only commenting on politics when they affect his business.
Arnualt’s comments mark a rare instance of a billionaire commenting on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Most of the world’s ultra-wealthy have largely stayed silent on the conflict.
A few billionaires, however, commented on the conflict as the war with Iran began in late February and developed into March.
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world with a fortune of $834 billion, has been vocal regarding the conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East. Musk said ‘no country is perfect, but Dubai and UAE broadly are objectively safer and better run than many areas of Europe’ on his social media platform X on 1 March, the same day that Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel was hit by debris from an intercepted Iranian drone, which caused a fire.
Musk’s comment was made in response to an X post from another outspoken billionaire, Pavel Durov, founder of the messaging app Telegram. Durov, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $6.6 billion, expressed confidence in the UAE’s safety. The Russian-born billionaire returned to Dubai earlier this month after being detained in France over an investigation into criminal activity and content on the Telegram app in August 2024.
Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – all in close proximity to Iran – have taken cautious measures in response to the conflict, mindful of their business ties with the US and regional security concerns.
However, amid the Gulf states’ carefully considered responses to the US, Israel and Iran’s conflict, Emirati billionaire Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor has spoken out. In a now-deleted X post, the self-made multibillionaire, addressed Trump saying: ‘Who gave you the authority to drag our region into a war with #Iran? And on what basis did you make this dangerous decision? Did you calculate the collateral damage before pulling the trigger? And did you consider that the first to suffer from this escalation will be the countries of the region itself!’
He is best known as the founder and chairman of the Al Habtoor Group, which has major interests in hospitality, real estate, automotive, education and publishing in the UAE.
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Al Habtoor, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $2.3 billion, later deleted the post at the request of his American and Emirati friends, he told the Washington Post.
‘On my principles, I do not like to offend anyone in my life,’ Al Habtoor told the newspaper, adding that it was likely the US government had already seen his comments.
Supporting US President Donald Trump’s recent strategy in the Middle East is David Sacks, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who, since January 2025, has served as President Trump’s special adviser on AI and cryptocurrency. Reposting a TruthSocial post of Trump’s on X, Sacks endorsed the president’s efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s key oil and natural gas trade routes, which is controlled by the Iranian navy. Previously COO and product leader at PayPal, Sacks has been associated with billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel – both of whom have links to Trump’s MAGA movement.
Thiel, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $29.7 billion, has not publicly commented on the war in Iran. However, the AI company Palantir, which Thiel co-founded in 2003, has been adopted by the Pentagon as a core part of US Army intelligence systems. Palantir signed a deal with the US Army worth up to $10 billion last year, according to Reuters, and has provided machine learning tools to prioritise targets and recommend weapons for American forces.
Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, has also weighed in on the conflict. Dalio, whose fortune sits at $15.4 billion, warned of a ‘final battle’ over the Strait of Hormuz in an X post last Monday.
His warning underscores the global economic stakes of the conflict, as much of the billionaire class remains cautious in publicly addressing a war which is yet to have reached its end.
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