François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis.

Pinault SA grew strongly and diversified its portfolio by acquiring several companies facing bankruptcy, including Chapelle Darblay, to restructure them.

[4][6] On 25 October 1988, Pinault SA was taken public in the Paris stock exchange and started to invest in specialty store chains.

[9] Artémis bought the news magazine Le Point in 1997, the auction house Christie's in 1998,[6][10] and the luxury cruise company Ponant in 2015.

In March 1999, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute purchased a controlling 42% stake of the Gucci Group for $3 billion,[14] and bought the Yves Saint Laurent company.

[15] Pinault then purchased the French jewelry company Boucheron in 2000, Balenciaga in 2001, and the British fashion house Alexander McQueen.

[3] He collected art of the 20th century (Mondrian, Picasso, Man Ray, ...) before following contemporary artists (David Hammons, Rudolf Stingel, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Subodh Gupta, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, ...).

[20] In 2013, Pinault achieved the third chapter of his cultural project in Venice with the renovation and transformation of the Teatrino, an open-air theater in ruins.

In 2000, he provided a significant financial assistance to help the islands in Brittany affected by the oil spill following the sinking of the Erika.

[27] In 2022, he pledged to contribute 500,000 euros to restore the chapel Saint-Michel of Brasparts in Monts d'Arrée, and the butte on which it stands on, after it had been ravaged by fire.

[32] After the Notre Dame de Paris fire on 15 April 2019, the Pinault family pledged 100 million euros as a donation to the reconstruction works and repairs of the cathedral.

The couple divorced five years later, and in 1970, Pinault married Maryvonne Campbell, an antique trader in Rennes who introduced him to the world of art.