The richest person in the world leaves centibillionaires like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in the dust
We last reported in July that Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, had beat his own record for the richest person alive—amassing a fortune of an estimated US$172 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Now, the tech entrepreneur has grown his fortune further, becoming the first person ever to be worth US$200 billion. As Amazon stock edged up two per cent on Wednesday, Bezos was estimated to be worth US$205 billion at market close that day. His net worth is currently US$199.2 billion as of August 28.
As e-commerce became a primary mode of consumerism amidst the coronavirus, Amazon, which is the world's largest online marketplace, saw its stocks skyrocket by nearly 80 per cent since the beginning of the year. The tech giant is also a major player in AI assistants, live-streaming and cloud computing—counting voice assistant Alexa, Kindle, Audible, Twitch, Amazon Music and Prime Video amongst its notable products.
With the rise of Amazon, Bezos has also seen an upsurge of his net worth, which was estimated to be US$115 billion on January 1. His 11 per cent stake in the company makes up for more than 90 per cent of his fortune.