Jeff Bezos’s wealth soars to record $171.6 billion, ex-wife is 2nd richest woman

Jeff Bezos’s web value has smashed via its earlier peak, even after he relinquished 1 / 4 of his stake in Amazon.com Inc. as a part of a divorce settlement final 12 months.

Shares of the Seattle-based retailer surged 4.4% to a report $2,878.70 Wednesday, boosting the founder’s world-leading fortune to $171.6 billion. That tops his earlier excessive of $167.7 billion, set on Sept. 4, 2018, in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

His good points — $56.7 billion this 12 months alone — underscore a widening wealth hole within the US throughout the worst financial downturn for the reason that Great Depression. Initial public choices and buoyant fairness markets have bolstered mega-fortunes, at the same time as tens of thousands and thousands of individuals have misplaced their jobs. This week, after receiving complaints about ending pandemic hazard pay, Amazon mentioned it might spend about $500 million to offer one-time $500 bonuses to most front-line employees.

The firm declined to touch upon its founder’s wealth.

Amazon has been on a tear, with the pandemic accelerating the buyer shift to e-commerce from brick-and-mortar retail. Bezos owns 11% of the inventory, which includes the majority of his fortune.

Most of these with the largest wealth good points additionally hail from the tech sector. They embody Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who added $25.eight billion to his fortune since Jan. 1, and Zoom Video Communications Inc. founder Eric Yuan, whose wealth has virtually quadrupled to $13.1 billion.

Mackenzie Bezos, who acquired a 4% stake in Amazon after the couple cut up, has a web value of $56.9 billion and climbed to No. 12 in Bloomberg’s rating. She not too long ago leapfrogged Alice Walton and Julia Flesher Koch to turn out to be the world’s second-wealthiest girl, and now trails solely L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Not each billionaire has come out forward this 12 months. Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the titan behind the Zara fast-fashion model, has misplaced $19.2 billion, essentially the most of anybody on the Bloomberg index. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett has dropped $19 billion and French luxury-goods tycoon Bernard Arnault is down $17.6 billion.

But most have weathered the downturn. The collective web value of the world’s 500 richest individuals now stands at $5.93 trillion, in contrast with $5.91 trillion in the beginning of the 12 months.