Jeff Bezos is world’s first-ever $200 billion man
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos presents the company's first smartphone, the Fire Phone, on June 18, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
Jeff Bezos is giving a whole new meaning to the title of world’s richest man.
The Amazon CEO’s net worth soared to a record $200 billion on Wednesday when shares of his online shopping behemoth closed at $3.441.85 on surging demand for contactless shopping.
Bezos, Amazon’s largest individual stockholder, has added more than $82 billion to his net worth this year as stuck-at-home consumers increasingly turn to the e-tail giant for their shopping needs. Amazon’s shares are up 86 percent year-to-date and its market cap sits at $1.7 trillion.
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The tech entrepreneur, who’s also the head of rocket company Blue Origin, now has $77 billion more than longtime richest man Bill Gates, who sits in second place with just over $123 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 56-year-old executive owns 54.5 million shares of Amazon, representing a 10.9 percent stake. His ownership stake in Blue Origin is also worth $7.2 billion, and he has $7.1 billion worth of cash and other assets, according to Bloomberg.
Even more staggering is that Bezos would have already surpassed the $250 billion mark had he not divorced his longtime partner and spouse MacKenzie, who received 20 million Amazon shares in the divorce settlement, putting her net worth at $64.4 billion. Those shares alone make her the 13th richest person in the world.
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With his $200 billion fortune, Bezos is wealthier than all three of the Walton siblings put together, who each hold an equal stake in Walmart, Amazon’s longtime retail nemesis. The Waltons have a combined net worth of $173 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Bezos, Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are currently the only people in the world enjoying 12-figure fortunes.