Tech fat cats get fatter
Bezos ‘storms Gates’
A new generation of tech tycoons is fast gaining ground on the old guard — especially when it comes to the size of their bank accounts.
The personal fortunes of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as well as Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, continued to surge after the companies’ first-quarter earnings blew past Wall Street’s expectations late Thursday.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg also got a boost from Friday’s rally as Facebook shares hit an all-time high, even though the social-media giant doesn’t report earnings until next week.
Amazon gained 0.7 percent Friday, closing at $924.99. Shares popped as much as 2.6 percent in earlier trades, which briefly vaulted Bezos’ personal fortune to about $80 billion.
Bezos’ ascent has him closing in on the current richest person in the world, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Disappointing results from Microsoft sent the software giant’s shares down 0.4 percent in early morning trades, but the stock ended the day up 0.3 percent, to $68.46, keeping Gates’ net worth just above $87 billion.
The Microsoft founder became the world’s richest person in 1995 and has maintained the title for much of the time since then. But in recent years a new breed of titans has been closing in on Gates.
Bezos holds the No. 3 spot and is nearly tied with Zara founder Amancio Ortega at No. 2.
Not far behind them is Facebook’s Zuckerberg, who holds the fifth spot with a net worth of $64.5 billion, placing him about $11.5 billion behind Warren Buffett in the fourth spot.
With Facebook up more than 1.7 percent Friday, Zuck added about $1 billion to his net worth.
Meanwhile, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw their fortunes jump by roughly $1.5 billion each as Alphabet shares popped 3.6 percent Friday, raising the company’s market capitalization by $22 billion to $631 billion.
Page and Brin are the 11th and 12th richest in the world, with fortunes pegged at $46.3 billion and $45.3 billion, respectively.