Jeff Bezos Becomes World’s First Person Worth $200 Billion

At this time of the month, many of us are left counting pennies to try and make it to payday, giving the milk a suspicious sniff and inspecting whether the bread is really still safe to eat. Needless to say, Jeff Bezos is not one of those people. 

It was true before, but it’s even more true now, because he’s become the first person in the world to be worth $200 billion. That’s right, it’s a two with 11 – I repeat, 11 – zeros behind it.

It’s hard for me to comprehend as someone whose decimal point lies 11 spaces further in than that, and even more so when the economy is facing such upheaval, but there’s no denying that he’s actually done it.

Bezos is sitting comfortably in first place when it comes to the richest people in the world, with his net worth nearly $90 billion more than the world’s second-richest person, Bill Gates, who’s currently worth $116.1 billion.

Even adjusting for inflation, Forbes believes Bezos’s fortune is the largest ever amassed.

While the rest of the world faced uncertainty and chaos, Bezos benefitted greatly from the coronavirus outbreak when it comes to his wealth. As more and more people turned to online shopping from the safety of their homes, Amazon became a natural go-to, and as a result stock is up nearly 80% since the beginning of the year.

It’s hard to believe, but Bezos’s net worth was roughly $115 billion on January 1, meaning he’s raked in almost $90 billion in approximately nine months. What’s even more baffling is that he’d be even richer had he not agreed to give his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, 25% of his Amazon stake in the most expensive divorce settlement in history last July.

Bezos’s roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune, but he also brings in money from owning the Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin and other private investments.

Ah, to be worth $200,000,000,000. It must be nice.