Jeff Bezos first person to be worth over US$200bil
Three of the world’s richest people have achieved staggering new levels of personal wealth.
The net worth of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos eclipsed US$200bil (RM833bil) on Wednesday as shares of the e-commerce giant climbed to a record.
The move simultaneously pushed his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, 50, to the brink of becoming the world’s richest woman, just behind L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise
Bettencourt Meyers.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, extended an extraordinary stretch of wealth gains to become a centibillionaire. Tesla Inc shares rallied on Wednesday, pushing his net worth to US$101bil (RM421bil), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people.
Tech companies boosted the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes to new highs for a fourth straight day, buoyed by news that the
Federal Reserve is likely to keep short-term interest rates near zero for at least five years.
The gains by Bezos, 56, and Musk represent just the latest high water mark for wealth accumulation in a topsy-turvy year defined by both surging markets and catastrophic human and economic loss.
The world’s 500 richest people have gained US$809bil (RM3.37 trillion) so far this year, a 14% increase since January, even as a global pandemic caused a record drop in gross domestic product and millions of lost jobs.
The rising income inequality has provoked sharp responses from many progressive politicians and critics on the left. US Senator Bernie Sanders earlier this month introduced legislation to tax “extreme” wealth gains during the coronavirus crisis.
“We cannot continue to allow billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to become obscenely rich while millions of Americans face eviction, hunger and economic desperation,” Sanders said on Wednesday in a statement. “It’s time to fundamentally change our national priorities.”
Others view their massive wealth as justified, saying they’ve earned it through the creation of singular businesses. “When you look at Musk and Bezos, it’s understated to say that in their own ways, they’ve changed the world,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.