“Hi, yes, that’s my giant pile of money over there!”
Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThree months ago, Jeff Bezos was for a brief moment the world’s richest person. This time, Amazon’s CEO and founder may get to keep that title for a little longer.
On Friday, the online retailing giant’s stock shot up a whopping 13 percent, a huge amount for such a large company, after Amazon easily outpaced its third-quarter earnings expectations.
That surge catapulted Bezos — yet again — to world’s richest, according to both Bloomberg and Forbes, helping him take the crown from Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates, who’s been in the top position since 2013.
Bezos’ wealth reached $93.8 billion, as of Friday’s market close, rising $10.4 billion (this is not a typo) in just one day. No need to feel bad for Gates, since his net worth is $88.7 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Bezos’ fortune has risen a staggering $28.5 billion this year, Bloomberg said, thanks to a huge rise in Amazon’s stock. That shows the stock market is expecting Amazon to keep growing strong for years to come as it’s dominance in e-commerce may spread to more areas like grocery, drones and television.
While Gates has contributed billions of dollars to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Amazon’s CEO is still not a major name in philanthropy. However, he has expressed an interest in giving away more of his wealth. He may have another reason to do so now.
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