Amazon Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Bezos, on Wednesday became the world’s first person ever to hit a net worth of $200bn as the tech giant’s stock continued a steady climb that kicked off in mid-March.
With Amazon stock edging up two per cent as of Wednesday afternoon, Bezos’ net worth is up by $4.9bn, making the 56-year-old the world’s first-ever person to amass a $200bn fortune, Forbes said.
For comparison, Bezos is personally worth more than Nike, McDonald’s and Pepsi, which are all valued between $139bn and $191bn.
Bezos already held a substantial lead on the next closest rich guy, Bill Gates, who entered Wednesday with a net worth of $123bn, according to Bloomberg.
The bulk of his fortune stems from a 10.9 per cent stake in Amazon — or about 54.5 million shares — which Bezos founded in Seattle in 1994.
It’s also worth pointing out that Bezos would’ve hit the $200bn mark sooner had he not divorced his wife last year.
His ex-wife, MacKenzie, is worth more than $64bn after getting 20 million settlement Amazon shares during their divorce.
Overall, Amazon is worth $1.72trn — making it the second most valuable company behind Apple, which has a market cap of $2.16trn.
