Jeff Bezos is closer than ever to a historical title: the first person ever to be worth $200 billion.
On Tuesday, the shares of Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994 and led as chief executive, rose 1.2%—pushing Bezos’ net worth up by $2.2 billion, to a record $199.7 billion. Because he owns such a large percentage of the tech giant, even modest moves in the stock price can add or subtract billions from his fortune.
The record comes
Since the pandemic shook the economy in mid-February, Amazon stock has risen by more than 55%, thanks to an increasing appetite for online shopping due to shelter-in-place orders. Bezos’ fortune has risen nearly $86 billion in just under 12 months. He was worth $114 billion on the 2019 Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, which used stock prices from early September 2019.