Did everyone have a nice Prime Day? Well, Jeff Bezos sure did.
Your retail therapy addiction on Monday lifted the Amazon founder to become the richest person in modern history. Bezos’ net worth exceeded $150 billion shortly before Prime Day started, propelled by the anticipation of another record-setting day of Amazon sales.
Bezos is now worth more than Bill Gates at the height of the dot-com boom in 1999, when the Microsoft founder eclipsed the $100 billion plateau ($149 billion in today’s dollars). Gates remains the second-richest person in the world at $95 billion, followed by Mark Zuckerberg at a measly $83 billion.
While we’re on the topic of billionaires, have you ever heard of a guy named Jack Ma? He’s the Chairman of Alibaba, which is basically a combination of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and like 20 other companies. Well, Bezos’ fortune jumped by $52 billion this year, which is more than the entirety of Ma’s worth.
Is it even possible to comprehend how much money that is? It truly is not. “It’s hard to even put it in perspective,” said Michael Cole, CEO of Cresset Family Office. “It’s such a staggering number.”
Of course, Bezos’ mind-boggling accumulation of wealth is not without criticism. Widespread reports have called out the One and Only Online Marketplace for treating workers unfairly and providing less-than-ideal working conditions.
Doing both of those things, however, probably means Bezos drops to a miserable third or so on the world’s richest people list.
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