Following Meta’s layoffs earlier this month, Arnault, the head of the luxury goods conglomerate that controls brands like Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Sephora, likened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s move to let go of low-performing workers to layoffs at Tiffany’s.

The business world has a history of coming up with polite terms to couch unpleasantness. In the past, when it comes to job cuts, CEOs have “let go,” “made redundant,” and “rightsized” staff, among other attempts to avoid saying “laid off” or “fired.

Bernard Arnault said a wind of optimism is blowing through the US after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, in contrast to his native France, where the government is seeking to raise corporate taxes and unemployment is increasing.

"It's clear that we are being strongly pushed by the American authorities to continue to build out our presence," Bernard Arnault told reporters.