Jeff Bezos is a very successful man. The founder of Amazon has been one of the richest men on Earth for many years. But something very momentous just happened. Jeff Bezos has just surpassed Warren Buffet and Amancio Ortega on the list of richest people on Earth. In other words, Jeff Bezos is now the second richest person alive behind only Bill Gates.
Bezos became the second richest person alive on Wednesday, after amazon.com Inc rose to $18.32 a share. That jump added $9.5 billion to Amazon's market cap which in turn added $1.5 billion to his net worth. The rise in the stock price was as a result of an announcement the e-commerce company made regarding its plans to buy souq.com, a Dubai-based online retailer. As a result of the rise in Amazon's stock price, Bezos now has a net worth of $76 billion which tops Warren Buffett's $75 billion and Zara-founder Amancio Ortega's $74 billion. Bill Gates has net worth of $90 billion.
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The rise of Bezos to the (almost) top of the world's richest people has been amazing to see. Just five years ago, Bezos was the 26th-richest person on the planet with a net worth of (just) $18.4 billion. Last year, Bezos found himself in the top 10 of the richest people on Earth with a net worth of $45.2 billion. Now, he finds himself No. 2 on the list.
FYI: Bezos owns 17% of Amazon. In the 20 years since Amazon went public, Bezos has sold $4.5 billion worth of his shares. The day Amazon went public, Amazon's stock topped out at $18 and Jeff was left with a net worth of $12 billion. At the peak of the dotcom bubble, Amazon stock topped $106 per share. After the bubble burst, Amazon's stock price sank to an all-time low of $5 per share in October of 2001. At that point, Jeff's net worth sank to $2 billion. As of this writing, a single share of Amazon trades for $876. So, if you had been smart enough to take $10,000 and buy shares of Amazon in October of 2001, you'd have $1.7 million today before counting any dividends that they may have issued.
Bezos has been on a tear this year, adding a whopping $10.2 billion to his net worth in the last 12 months, and $7 billion since Donald Trump was elected in November, bringing his net worth to a roughly $76 billion. This means that Bezos is now just $10 billion behind the richest person on the planet: Bill Gates, whose net worth rests at roughly $86 billion.
Do you think that Bezos will ever be able to surpass Gates? Hit the comment section with your thoughts.
