Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth has just cracked US$150 billion in New York, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s about US$55 billion more than the net worth of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s second-richest person.
Bezos crossed this mindboggling threshold as Amazon was preparing to kick off its 36-hour summer sales event, Prime Day.
The 54-year-old’s net worth has soared by US$52 billion this year, which is more than the entire fortune of Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma, Asia’s wealthiest person. It also places Bezos’s personal fortune closely to the US$151.5 billion controlled by the Walton family, the world’s richest dynasty.
Did you know?
Bill Gates would have had a net worth of more than US$150 billion if he’d held on to assets that he’s given away, largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s donated almost 700 million Microsoft shares and US$2.9 billion of cash and other assets since 1996, according to an analysis of his publicly disclosed donations.
[Photo credit: By Seattle City Council from Seattle – https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecitycouncil/39074799225/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68400532]
