Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' net worth has just crossed the $200 billion mark, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is the first man in history to achieve this feat.
The companies' share price skyrocketed along with his personal fortune as customers switched to the online retail market amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bezos is now $78 billion richer than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is number two in the ranking. He became the world's richest man in 2018 when his personal wealth was recorded to be above $150 billion.
Amazon shares hit record highs in April on the back of unprecedented demand from consumers, and the stock has continued to rise, adding hundreds of billions to its market value and giving investors a gain of more than 86% this year so far, CNBC reported.
Since the beginning of 2020, Amazon stock is up nearly 80 per cent, said the Forbes report, adding that Bezos` net worth on January 1 was roughly $115 billion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a boon for Bezon as people went online as opposed to local businesses to by necessities like groceries, face masks, hand sanitizers. In the second-quarter results, the company racked up revenues worth $88.9 billion, and managed better-than-expected profits.
Bezos also owns aerospace company Blue Origin, the Washington Post, and other private investments.
However, his nearly 11 per cent stake in Amazon makes up over 90 percent of his massive fortune.
It is also to be noted that Bezos' personal wealth would have reached unprecedented heights if not for his divorce with wife MacKenzie Bezos who walked away with a whopping $38 billion in the world's biggest divorce settlement with the Amazon Founder and CEO in 2019.
The couple, who have four children, finalised their divorce in April, last year, in what was reported as the biggest divorce settlement in history, entitling MacKenzie to 25 percent of couple's joint Amazon stocks worth around USD 38 billion
Even with the settlement, Jeff remained the richest individual in the world.
