Amazon boss world’s richest person — for a few hours
Jeff Bezos, who took the wealth he’d amassed creating Amazon.com and bought the Washington Post and a rocket maker, surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person on Thursday — at least for a few hours.
Bezos’ rise to No. 1 followed a surge in Amazon shares Thursday before the online retailer’s earnings report came out later in the day.
Amazon shares have been on a tear over the past year, passing the $1,000 (U.S.) mark and hitting $1,082 by midday Thursday, propelling Bezos, 53, to $90.6 billion compared with Gates’s $90.1 billion.
Then, with investors bracing for the Seattle company to report secondquarter results after the close, the shares tumbled. Amazon fell 0.7 per cent on the day, leaving Bezos with $89.3 billion and keeping him in second place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Gates, 61, who built his fortune through Microsoft, has long been among the world’s richest and had held the top spot since May 2013.
Amazon’s market cap, which is the total value of all its shares, also broke the $500-billion mark recently, joining other exclusive members of the $500-billion-plus club such as Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple.
Amazon shares comprise the vast majority of Bezos’ wealth. He owns just shy of17 per cent of the company.
He also owns rocket company Blue Origin. Bezos has said he pays for Blue Origin through his sale of $1 billion a year in Amazon stock.
“Mae West said, ‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful,’ ” said Michael Farr, who runs a Washington investment firm. “We presume Mr. Bezos agrees. The power and value of technology can’t be overestimated. We believe Mr. Bezos will continue to set records.”
Bezos started 2017 as the world’s fourth-wealthiest person and has since surpassed Inditex founder Amancio Ortega, 81, who ranks third, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett, 86.
Investors have put increasing faith in Bezos to keep Amazon growing by entering new categories such as groceries and appliances and expanding abroad.
Their confidence has sent the stock up 39 per cent this year and was unfazed by the announcement that Amazon would spend $13.7 billion for Whole Foods, the company’s biggest acquisition. But the support took a turn in extended trading after Thursday’s results were reported, with shares falling as much as 4.3 per cent to $1,001.80.