Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the world’s first-ever $200 billionaire after shares of Amazon, the multinational technology company, rose on Wednesday to $3.403.64, thanks, in part, to a surge in demand for online retail activity amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Fox News reported.
According to the outlet, shares of Amazon, of which Bezos owns 11.1% (54.5 million of the shares) as the largest individual stockholder, rose recently by at least 1.8%, or by $60.35 a share.
Given the rise in share price over the past 12 months, the 56-year-old entrepreneur's net worth increased some $86 billion, thanks to stay-at-home orders and fears of becoming infected during a pandemic.
On Tuesday, Forbes reported that Bezos’s net worth had reached $197.8 billion, the highest fortune recorded by the business magazine since its foundation in 1982.
The tech multinational's shares rose by about 77.1% this year, including a 55% increase since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the US in early February, pushing its value to $1.68 trillion, according to Fox News.
Alongside his stake in Amazon, Bezos also has some $7.2 billion invested in aerospace manufacturing company Blue Origin, as well as $7.1 billion worth of cash and other assets, according to Bloomberg.
In September 2019, the Amazon billionaire’s net worth was estimated to be $114 billion in the 2019 Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.
In June 2019, the tech entrepreneur gave 25% of his Amazon shares to ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in a divorce settlement. Scott currently owns 3.8% of the online retail behemoth, in what is claimed to be the highest divorce settlement in history.
According to Bloomberg, Scott’s net worth exceeds $100 billion as of Wednesday, due to the increase in Amazon shares, pushing her to be close to being the world’s wealthiest woman, following behind L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.
Had Bezos not divorced Scott, their net worth would have exceeded the $250 billion, according to Fox News.
