The founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos has now recorded a net worth of $197.8 billion (£149.25 billion) – the highest fortune recorded by Forbes since it began tracking the riches of the wealthy nearly four decades ago.
Yesterday (August 18), Amazon recorded a 4.1% gain which made the company the best-performing stock in the S&P stock for the day. As a result of this, Jeff Bezos – who owns just over 11% of the company – became $7.2 billion richer.
With Amazon’s stock rising in recent months, the company now has a whopping market capitalisation of $1.66 trillion. The company’s growing fortune has made Bezos $83.8 billion more richer than the world’s second richest person, Microsoft owner Bill Gates.
News of Bezos’ record-breaking fortune on the Forbes list comes after it was recently announced that he was on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.