Move over, Bill Gates — Amazon' s founder and CEO now holds the crown as the world' s richest human
Amazon’s stock price jumped more than $25 on Thursday, handing CEO Jeff Bezos bragging rights as the richest person in the world. His fortune now tops $90 billion.
The surge came ahead of Amazon’s (AMZN) earnings, which will be reported Thursday after market-close.
Having started the year as the world’s third-richest human, according to Forbes — behind Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK. A) CEO Warren Buffett — the Amazon founder’s wealth has shot up along with the company’s stock price, which has soared more than 43 percent this year. It’s now trading at more than a thousand dollars per share, a status only four other publicly listed U. S. companies carry.
Amazon’s stature among investors reflects its growing importance in the retail world, where it accounts for roughly a third of all e-commerce transactions, and its ambitions to push into other sectors of the economy, like the food business.
Bezos, who started Amazon as a way to sell books online, built the company into a massive internet retail empire, forcing traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to completely rethink their sales strategies and, in some cases, shut their doors. The company’s recent push into video content through its Prime subscription service has thrown down a gauntlet to competitors Netflix and Hulu.
Amazon is notable for relentlessly focusing on growth and expansion, not turning a profit for years. If the recent acquisition of grocer Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, partnership with sports giant Nike and rumors Amazon is looking to break into the health care market are any indication, Bezos is looking to make Amazon even bigger — and keep a strong grip on his new title.
