The world’s richest man is now also the world’s first $200 billionaire.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos broke the wealth barrier on Wednesday as shares of his online shopping behemoth continued to surge on skyrocketing demand for online shopping.
The breakthrough occurred just before noon when shares of the Seattle company soared over $3,404 a share for the first time ever. The stock continued higher in afternoon trading to end the day up 2.85 percent, or $95.36 a share, to $3,441.85 — pushing Bezos’s net worth up $5 billion to a massive $202 billion.
Bezos, 56, is now $77.7 billion richer than Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who long held the title of world’s richest man but who now sits in the No. 2 spot with $124.3 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sits in third place with a net worth of $114.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bezos is also now wealthier than all three of the Walton siblings put together, who each hold an equal stake in Walmart, Amazon’s longtime retail nemesis. The Waltons have a combined net worth of $173 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Bezos isn’t the only billionaire who’s made out like a bandit in 2020, despite a pandemic that has shuttered much of the economy and forced a record number of Americans to the unemployment line.
Excluding the $87 billion Bezos has added to his fortune in 2020, the next 10 richest people in the world have seen their wealth grow by more than $150 billion this year, according to Bloomberg. That figure includes the $73.6 billion that’s been added to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth as his electric automaker’s stock has skyrocketed.
Bezos owns 54.5 million shares of Amazon, representing a 10.9 percent stake, at a time when the e-commerce juggernaut has seen its stock surge 81.3 percent as the COVID-19 pandemic forces more people to shop from the safety of their own homes. The Seattle company is now worth $1.72 trillion.
Bezos is also founder of space rocket company Blue Origin, which his ownership stake is worth $7.2 billion. Plus, he has $7.1 billion worth of cash and other assets, according to Bloomberg.
Even more staggering is that Bezos would have already easily surpassed the $250 billion mark had he not divorced his longtime partner and spouse MacKenzie Scott. The mother of his four children, who received 20 million Amazon shares in the divorce, is worth $67.2 billion, making her the 13th richest person in the world.
The Amazon executive hasn’t been shy about spending his fortune either. He recently broke the record for the priciest home purchase in Los Angeles when he bought David Geffen’s palatial Beverly hills home for $165 million.
And as The Post previously reported, Bezos has spent close to $100 million on four apartments in 212 Fifth Avenue, which he plans to merge into a massive dream home. Late last year, reports emerged that Bezos was mulling a purchase of the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL franchise located in Amazon’s backyard.