Amazon’s Jeff Bezos becomes World’s Richest: Forbes
The richest man in the world is Jeff Bezos. He is the first person in the world to reach the milestone of $200 billion. Shares of Jeff Bezos’ company, Amazon.com, rose 2 percent as of Wednesday.
Bezos’ net worth is up by $4.9 billion, making Bezos the world’s first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune, Forbes reports.
The 56-year-old Amazon founder now owns about $204.6 billion, about $90 billion more than the world’s second richest man, Bill gates. Currently, Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill gates has a net worth of $116.1 billion.
Even if inflation is adjusted, Forbes thinks Bezos’ fortune is the largest ever tracked, Forbes reported.
Among the biggest beneficiaries of the lockdown and restrictions due to Coronavirus are Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Because during this time people have shopped a lot more online, watched videos and spent time through social media. Amazon’s share price has risen 80 percent since the beginning of the year.
In addition to Amazon, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin. Also, he has many more private investments.
Due to Bezos’ divorce and falling share prices last year, many speculated that Bezos would lose the top spot. Bezos has lost a great deal of wealth, especially due to divorce. Originally the two of them had joint shares in the company. Jeff Bezos had 75 percent of it.
The rest belongs to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. In addition to these shares, Mackenzie also received a 4 percent stake from Amazon.
Scott is currently the world’s 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.