Bezos passes Buffett to become 3rd-richest
Jeff Bezos just snuck past Warren Buffett to become the third-richest person on Earth.
The Amazon.com founder’s net worth was $65.05 billion Thursday, topping Buffett by $32 million on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. With the gain, Bezos’ wealth has increased by $5.4 billion this year, marking a resurgence after it fell to as low as $43 billion in February amid turbulent global markets.
Most of Bezos’ wealth is tied to Amazon, which has benefited from robust demand for quick-turnaround delivery, cloud services and gadgets like the Kindle and Echo.
In April, the Seattle-based company posted its biggestever net income and said firstquarter sales climbed 28 percent, including a 64 percent rise at its cloud-computing division. The shares are up 55 percent since hitting a low of $482.07 on Feb. 9.
Bezos’ rise in the billionaire rankings has been helped by Buffett’s philanthropy. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman donated about $2.2 billion worth of stock this month in his annual gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Bezos, 52, now lags only Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the Inditex founder who has a $73 billion fortune, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the world’s richest person, with $89 billion. Bezos’ rank could climb higher.
Carlos Kirjner of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. set his Amazon price target at $1,000 in May, 34 percent above Friday’s close of $744.86
With the stock at that price, Bezos’ fortune would be about $86 billion, just under Gates’ current level.