Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos added a record $ 13 billion to his fortune Monday amid a coronavirus-fueled boom for his e-commerce empire.
A 7.9 percent rise in Amazon’s stock price helped the world’s richest man reach the biggest one-day rise in anyone’s net worth in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the fortune of the richest people on Earth.
Bezos, 56, is now worth $ 189.3 billion, making him more valuable than big corporations like McDonald’s, Exxon Mobile and Nike, according to Bloomberg.
The tech mogul has added $ 74.4 billion to his wealth so far this year amid a 73 percent rise in Amazon’s stock price. The conglomerate has benefited from increased demand for online shopping, as the blockades aimed at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic closed consumers at home.
According to reports, Amazon stocks posted their best daily profit since December 2018 on the Monday before the company’s second-quarter earnings report on Thursday. Analysts expect the Seattle-based company’s revenue to have jumped 27 percent to $ 80.7 billion, though earnings likely declined compared to the previous year amid rising costs, according to Bloomberg.
Bezos’ 11 percent stake in Amazon represents more than 90 percent of his net worth, while the rest comprise his space exploration firm Blue Origin, the Washington Post newspaper, and $ 4.5 billion in cash and other assets, he says. Bloomberg.
Other tech titans have also seen their fortunes explode even as the pandemic caused the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has added $ 14.8 billion to his wealth this year, while Tesla boss Elon Musk’s net worth has grown by $ 46.9 billion, including a jump of $ 5.7 billion on Monday, according to the Bloomberg ranking.
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