Jeff Bezos becomes first person ever worth $200 billion personal wealth
The world's richest person, Jeff Bezos, is wealthier than he's ever been. Early Wednesday he crossed a milestone previously unseen in the nearly four decades Forbes has been tracking net worths: With Amazon stock edging up 2% as of Wednesday afternoon, Bezos' net worth is up by $4.9 billion, making the 56-year-old the world's first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune.
As of 1:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the Amazon founder and CEO is worth $204.6 billion—nearly $90 billion more than the world's second-richest person, Bill Gates, who's currently worth $116.1 billion.
Even adjusting for inflation, Forbes believes Bezos' fortune is the largest ever amassed. The person to come closest is Gates, who was the world's first-ever centibillionaire. Near the height of the dot-com bubble, when Microsoft reached its then-peak in 1999, Gates' net worth surpassed $100 billion, roughly $158 billion in today's dollars.
Fueled by the change in consumer habits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon stock is up nearly 80% since the beginning of the year, and Bezos' net worth, which was roughly $115 billion on January 1, has skyrocketed in tandem. Bezos’ roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune. He also owns the Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin and other private investments.
Bezos would be even richer had he not gone through the most expensive divorce settlement in history last year. When he split from ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, last July, he agreed to give her 25% of his Amazon stake, a chunk of stock now worth $63 billion. Even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year, Scott is currently the world's 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.
Bezos isn’t alone among tech titans with fortunes surging to massive new heights. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg ended Tuesday as a brand-new centibillionaire, worth $103.1 billion after adding $3.4 billion to his fortune in one day, on Facebook stock gains. That surge continued early Wednesday afternoon, with Zuckerberg up an astonishing $6 billion just on Wednesday as of publication time. He's now worth $109.1 billion.
There are now more centibillionaires on the planet than ever. Joining Bezos, Gates and the newly crowned Zuckerberg is LVMH chair Bernard Arnault, who first joined the 12-figure ranks last year. Though his net worth slipped to about $80 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Arnault reclaimed the centibillionaire title in May and today is worth about $115 billion. This makes him the third-richest person on earth–$90 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos.
Report originally published on forbes.com
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AAP leaders once sought justice for Nirbhaya, today they are supporting an accused: Maliwal
New Delhi (PTI): AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, who has been accused by her party of being part of a conspiracy to frame Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a false case, on Sunday said her party colleagues once sought justice for Nirbhaya but today they are supporting a person accused of assaulting her.
She said if AAP leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is in jail in connection with the Delhi excise police case, had been here "maybe things wouldn't have been so bad for me!"
Maliwal has alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her on May 13 when she went to the CM's residence to meet him. The Aam Aadmi Party has trashed her allegations and claimed Maliwal was acting at the behest of the BJP to frame Kejriwal in a fake case.
Maliwal, who has been associated with the AAP since its inception more than 10 years ago, said on Sunday there was a time when "we all used to come out on the streets to get justice for Nirbhaya".
"Today, 12 years later, we have come out on the streets to save the accused (Bibhav Kumar) who made the CCTV footage disappear and formatted the phone? I wish they had used this much force for Manish Sisodia ji. Had he been here, maybe things wouldn't have been so bad for me!" she wrote.
Police have arrested Kumar in connection with the case.
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