Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, ended Tuesday with a record net worth of $197.8 billion, the highest fortune Forbes has recorded in nearly four decades of tracking billionaires.
Amazon was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Tuesday, recording a 4.1% gain, ending the day at a $1.66 trillion market capitalization. As a result, Bezos, who owns an 11.1% stake in the company, is $7.2 billion richer. The S&P 500 closed higher than its peak in February, before the pandemic had hit America in earnest.
As Amazon stock has risen in recent months, the gap between Bezos’ fortune and that of Bill Gates, the world’s second richest person, has grown to a current $83.8 billion. The difference between Bezos and Gates is just about the equivalent fortune of Elon Musk, who is now the fifth wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $85.6 billion. Tesla shares rose 2.8% on Tuesday, following an 11% surge on Monday.
The Amazon founder sold some of his stock earlier in the year. In February, he sold $1.7 billion worth of Amazon stock. In early August, he sold another $3.1 billion worth of shares. Documents filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on Tuesday also showed that Bezos gave 2,941 Amazon shares on August 14 — worth $9.3 million — to an undisclosed nonprofit.
Bezos’ former wife, MacKenzie Scott, who received a quarter of his Amazon stake as part of their divorce settlement last year, also saw her net worth rise. The third richest woman in the world-, she ended Tuesday with a net worth of $62.7 billion, up $2 billion in a day. Scott announced in July that she had given nearly $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofit organizations around the country. (Forbes.com)
