By Stanley Ugagbe
World’s richest man, Jeff Bezos has made history by becoming the first person in the world to hit a net worth of $200 billion.
The Amazon CEO reached the feat even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had adverse effects on businesses and world economies.
In a recent disclosure, Amazon’s share price climbed 2.3% to $3,423 per share, which helped Jeff Bezos enter the $200 billion net worth territory. His net worth is more than McDonald’s, Nike and Pepsi; all three companies are valued between $139 billion and $191 billion.
The key details of the development are:
• Since the beginning of 2020, Amazon stock has rallied nearly 80%, adding that Jeff Bezos roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up for more than 90% of his fortune.
• The Amazon founder also owns the American newspaper Washington Post, Blue Origin, an aerospace company, and also has a host of other private investments.
• Earlier in August 2020, Jeff Bezos had sold shares worth $3.1 billion in the e-commerce company.
• During the first two working days of August 2020, Amazon CEO had sold 1 million shares as a part of previously announced trading plans.
According to Forbes’s report, the world’s richest man is worth $204.6 billion as at the time of filing this report.
Bezos is $90 billion richer than Bill Gates, who is also the world’s second-richest person and is currently worth $116.1 billion.
The report also mentioned that the Amazon CEO has earned $86 billion worth of his wealth in the last 12 months. He was worth $114 billion until September 2019.
Experts are of the view that Jeff Bezos is on his path to become the world’s first trillionaire in 2026.
Meanwhile, reports have it that Bezos would have hit $200 billion mark earlier if he had not gone through the world’s biggest divorce settlement of $38 billion in 2019.
Jeff Bezos who was born on January 12, 1964, is an American industrialist, internet entrepreneur, investor, and media proprietor. He is the founder, CEO, and president of the multi-national e-commerce company Amazon.
Jeff Bezos had founded Amazon in 1994 in his garage in Seattle and has now turned it into a behemoth that dominates online retail globally.
