Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is definitely watering the grass in his garden and now greener than it was. On Wednesday, the net worth of the CEO soared above $202 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Achieving this feat makes him the first person to surpass the $200 billion mark. With this development, Microsoft boss, Bill Gates now lags behind with $78 billion at the second position.
The personal wealth of the Amazon founder which is mostly in Amazon stock, has been astronomical in recent years along with the company’s share price.
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Bezos however surpassed former No. 1 Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man in recent history in 2018 when his personal wealth climbed above $150 billion. He first became the richest man in the world in 2017.
Amazon shares shot for the skies and reached its highest peak ever in April. This is owing to the increase in demand from consumers as the stock continued to rise, making an addition of hundreds of billions to its market value and giving investors a gain of more than 86% this year so far.
As of Wednesday, the company closed at a worth more than $1.7 trillion. This as a result makes the organization the second-most valuable company in the U.S., only behind Apple.
The coronavirus pandemic is a major factor that propelled the growth of the company, as offline consumers naturally gravitated towards online retailers for necessities like face masks and hand sanitizer, as well as ordering groceries.
This spike in demand was responsible Amazon’s blowout second-quarter results, when revenue were recorded at a peak of over $88.9 billion and it reported better-than-expected profits despite spending billions of dollars on coronavirus-related investments.
However, financial experts analysed that Bezos’ net worth would have hit the $200 billion milestone much sooner if not for his divorce last year from his ex wife MacKenzie Scott (who recently changed her last name).
Scott, who is now ranked 13th on the Billionaires Index, became one of the world’s wealthiest women following her divorce when she received a 4% stake in Amazon, which gave her a $37 billion fortune. Her personal wealth now stands at more than $66 billion as of Wednesday.
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