Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, is not only the wealthiest man in the world but has now claimed the title of richest man in modern-day history with a worth exceeding $150 billion, according to Bloomberg. That is in comparison to every individual who has lived on earth since the year 1982. He has not earned his spot as the richest of the rich by any small margin; Bill Gates, next in line, falls short by a whopping $55 billion.
Benzos’ worth increased by $52 billion this year alone. Thisnot only puts him far above Microsoft’s Bill Gatesbut billions upon billions ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, both with assessed values of $83 billion. Amancio Ortega, the fifth richest person in the world, measures in at $75 billion, which while impressive falls drastically short of the over $150 billion net worth of Amazon’s founder.
However, Benzos is not without future goals. He has not yet passed the amount needed to be considered the richestperson ever. Many believe that John D. Rockefeller, who made his vast fortune in the oil industry, is still the wealthiest individual since the Middle Ages. In fact, some experts believe that in today’s currency, Rockefeller’s worth would have reached a grand totalof $367 billion.
At the top of his career,Rockefeller was worth a staggering 2 percent of America’s GDP. Bloomberg estimates Benzos’ current value as equivalent to a little over 0.7%. To rival Rockefeller, he would have to become worth more than $350 billion. In addition to Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie of the steel industry and Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, also made more in their time than Benzos has, thus far, in his.
What’s the secret behind Benzos’ success? It is closely tiedtothe success of Amazon, a company he founded and now owns a 16% portion of, as its largest shareholder. It was on Amazon’s day-and-a-half summertime Prime Day sale that his worth shot high enough to earn his newest distinction. The online megastore has a valueestimated at over $890 billion, with its stock shares reaching levels as high as $1,841.95. Increases in the stock by 50% over the span of months have added an excess of several tens of billions to the successful businessman’s worth.
Amazon is not Benzos’ sole source of profit. He also owns an aerospace company called Blue Origin that has set its sights on the goal of designing reusable rockets that can successfully contain passengers. The Washington Post is another venture of his, and he purchased the paper backin 2013 for a price of $250 million.
With these investments in addition to the one hundred million subscribers to Amazon Prime, which is more than those of Costco, Apple Music, or Hulu Plus, the money will only continue rolling in. Sometime soon Bezos may justexceed that GDP percentage held by Rockefeller and achieve yet another milestone.
