The rich got richer. This seems to be the case of Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos. As of yesterday, he became the world's wealthiest person, his net worth topping $202 billion.
Bezos’ wealth, made up mostly of #Amazon stocks, skyrocketed in the past couple of years along with the company's stock price. He outdid himself two years in a row when in 2017 and 2018 became the world's wealthiest person, crossing the $90 billion and $150 billion thresholds.
This year's record was driven by a surge in share price supported by unprecedented consumer demand, which turned to online shopping due to the pandemic. Since then, the stock had continued to rise – the increase added hundreds of billions to Amazon’s market value. Year-to-date, investors gained more than 86%. As of Wednesday, the company has a market cap of $1.7 trillion.
According to specialists, he could have reached the $200 billion milestone much sooner if it wasn’t for his divorce from MacKenzie Scott. After the divorce, she became one of the wealthiest women as she received a 4% stake in Amazon. As of yesterday, her net worth is $66 billion.
Since the beginning of the year, Amazon #stock price has gained more than 80%. Yesterday, it closed higher by almost 3%.
See how Amazon performed in Q2 here!
Sources: forbes.com, cnbc.com, finance.yahoo.com