How rich is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, an e-commerce platform. In this article, Investingport will be looking at Jeff Bezos’ current ranking based on net worth.

With reference to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos is ranked as the richest man in the world with a net worth of $130.1 billion. This figure also corroborates with Forbes's real-time net worth.

Early Days of Amazon.com

Following his resignation from D.E Shaw (a hedge fund company) in 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in a Garage in Seattle. His former Boss, David E. Shaw confirmed that Bezos originally pitched the idea of running an online bookstore to him, however, he was not interested.

Amazon began its first phase by selling books. Over time, the company grew and served as a sales point for all manner of items. Amazon.com is also considered as one of the world’s best retailer. Recently, Amazon.com has expanded with its several acquisitions. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods and in Feb. 2018, the company launched its branded over-the-counter drugs.

The operations of Amazon.com became public in 1997 and the company was able to raise $54 million from its Initial Public Offering. Jeff Bezos went further to launch other businesses like the Blue Origin (an aerospace company developing rockets for commercial use), The Washington Post and the Long Now.

Throughout the year 2019, Bezos ranked top on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index and had an estimated net worth of $115 billion as of Dec. 31. He was closely followed by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft with an estimated net worth of $113 billion.

Statistical data available on the Bloomberg Billionaire index shows that there are only three billionaires whose net worth exceeds $100 billion. They are Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Bernard Arnault of LVMH.  

Bezos’ Divorce from Mackenzie Bezos

Following Bezos’ divorce from his wife, Mackenzie Bezos, there were speculations that Bezos was going to lose his top spot on the billionaire index. This was because one-quarter of his net worth was to be given to his ex-wife as part of the divorce settlement, making him hold unto the remaining 75% of Amazon stock.  

His ex-wife also got a 4% stake in Amazon.com. With the 4% amounting to about $37 billion, she ranked as the 25^th richest person in the world.

In Nov. 2019, Amazon’s profit declined briefly by about 28% but was short-lived. In June 2019, Bezos carried out one of the most expensive real estate transactions in New York City where a spent a total of $80 million.

In January 2020, shares of Amazon rallied for 17 minutes, making Bezos’ net worth increase by about $13 billion.

With his net worth currently standing at $130.1 billion, Bezos revealed on Feb. 17 that he would be funding a climate change mitigation program (the Bezos Earth Fund) with $10 billion. On Wednesday, it was also revealed that Bezos acquired a Beverly Hills mansion that was worth $165 million.