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Unbelievable! Meet the world’s first multi-trillionaire
Late Wednesday (Nigeria time) sees Jeff Bezos become the first human to be valued at $200billion.
According to Omojuwa, “Jeff Bezos is worth about N100trillion depending on how the Naira moves. 1 trillion is 999 billion plus 1 billion. This life no just balance.”
Forbes has reported the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, to have crossed a milestone previously unseen in the nearly four decades the publication has been tracking net worths:
With Amazon stock edging up 2% as of Wednesday afternoon, Bezos’ net worth is up by $4.9 billion, making the 56-year-old the world’s first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune.
Bernie Sanders, however took time to tweet about the situation as well. Going a different direction:
While 92 million can’t afford health care, the 4 richest Americans are now worth $512.8 billion:
– Jeff Bezos: $193 billion
– Bill Gates: $122 billion
– Mark Zuckerberg: $101 billion
– Elon Musk: $96.8 billion
It’s time to tax the billionaire class and expand Medicare to all.
As of 1:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the Amazon founder and CEO is worth $204.6 billion—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’ fortune is the largest ever amassed. The person to come closest: Bill Gates, who was the world’s first-ever centibillionaire. Near the height of the dot-com bubble, when Microsoft reached its then-peak in 1999, Gates’ net worth surpassed $100 billion, roughly $158 billion in today’s dollars.
Fueled by the change in consumer habits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon stock is up nearly 80% since the beginning of the year, and Bezos’ net worth, which was roughly $115 billion on January 1, has skyrocketed in tandem. Bezos’ roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune. He also owns the Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin and other private investments.
Bezos would be even richer had he not gone through the most expensive divorce settlement in history last year. When he split from ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, last July, he agreed to give her 25% of his Amazon stake, a chunk of stock now worth $63 billion. Even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year, Scott is currently the world’s 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.
Bezos isn’t alone among tech titans with fortunes surging to massive new heights. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg ended Tuesday as a brand-new centibillionaire, worth $103.1 billion after adding $3.4 billion to his fortune in one day, on Facebook stock gains. That surge continued early Wednesday afternoon, with Zuckerberg up an astonishing $6 billion just on Wednesday as of publication time. He’s now worth $109.1 billion.
There are now more centibillionaires on the planet than ever. Joining Bezos, Gates and the newly crowned Zuckerberg is LVMH chair Bernard Arnault, who first joined the 12-figure ranks last year. Though his net worth slipped to about $80 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Arnault reclaimed the centibillionaire title in May and today is worth about $115 billion. This makes him the third-richest person on earth–$90 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos.