The FINANCIAL — The world’s wealthiest man, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, is wealthier than ever. On August 26, Early Wednesday Amazon’s share price climbed 2.3 percent to $3,423 per share and Mr. Bezos crossed a new milestone previously unseen in decades and became the first person to top $200 billion in net worth. MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos became one of the world’s wealthiest women following her divorce when she received a 4% stake in Amazon.
Bezos’ net worth is more than Nike, McDonald’s and Pepsi, all three companies are valued between $139 billion and $191 billion. Amazon’s CEO and also the world’s richest man is worth $204.6 billion as of August 27. He is $90 billion richer than Bill Gates, who is the world’s second-richest person, currently worth $116.1 billion. Amazon stock has rallied nearly 80 percent since the beginning of 2020, adding that Bezos’ roughly 11 percent stake in Amazon makes up more than 90 percent of his fortune, according to News18.
The coronavirus pandemic has helped fuel that growth, as consumers turned to online retailers for necessities like face masks and hand sanitizer, as well as ordering groceries. This surge in demand was behind Amazon’s blowout second-quarter results, when revenue topped $88.9 billion and it reported better-than-expected profits despite spending billions of dollars on coronavirus-related investments. It’s likely that Bezos’ net worth would have hit the $200 billion milestone sooner if not for his divorce last year from 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, as reported by CNBC.
Bezos isn’t alone among tech titans with fortunes surging to massive new heights. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg ended Tuesday as a brand-new centibillionaire, worth $103.1 billion after adding $3.4 billion to his fortune in one day, on Facebook stock gains. That surge continued early Wednesday afternoon, with Zuckerberg up an astonishing $6 billion just on Wednesday as of publication time. He’s now worth $109.1 billion. There are now more centibillionaires on the planet than ever. Joining Bezos, Gates and the newly crowned Zuckerberg is LVMH chair Bernard Arnault, who first joined the 12-figure ranks last year. Though his net worth slipped to about $80 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Arnault reclaimed the centibillionaire title in May and today is worth about $115 billion, Forbes wrote.
Mr. Bezos is a known philanthropist. He committed $10 billion in the beginning of 2020 to fund scientists, activists and NGOs to help preserve and protect the natural world and to fight Climate change. Bezos said that Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet and that he wants to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.
It should be noted that the current pandemic has greatly impacted the entire world and will certainly be the most significant factor that shapes people’s lives when history looks back at the year 2020. Amazon has managed to play a very prominent role in pandemic retail and have a profound impact on the way that people have been coping with living under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Amazon sellers have been affected by the pandemic as well. Overall, the effect that the pandemic is having on online retail is positive when it comes to sales. There have been quite a few emerging trends and a lot of opportunities for sellers to find new items to sell on Amazon.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the online retail giant – Amazon removed more than 1 million fake and overpriced coronavirus listings from its online marketplace in an effort to stop sellers from profiting off fear. Facebook said it has banned misleading ads on coronavirus this week while Google has helped to promote official information from the WHO. Read more.
