Jeff Bezos Officially Surpasses Bill Gates (again) As The Richest Man In The World With A Net Worth Of One-Hundred-Twelve BILLION DOLLARS
Source - Forbes magazine has released its annual list of super duper rich people on Tuesday, and move over Bill Gates because Jeff Bezos is flush with cash.
Surprising no one, the Amazon CEO topped the list with a $112 billion net worth. Making Bezos the first person to top $100 billion on the list of World’s Billionaires.
Falling from the top spot, the Microsoft cofounder clocked in at number two with a worth of $90 billion.
Rounding out the top five, Facebook CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly worth $71 billion, behind Warren Buffett and Bernard Arnault and family, respectively.
This isn’t the first time Bezos has surpassed Gates as the world’s richest man. He had him beat by $500 million for a short time last summer when his net worth rose to $90 billion. Since then, Bezos has blown Gates out of the water by earning an additional THIRTY-TWO BILLION DOLLARS in less than a year. Translating to about a billion dollars a week. I broke it down into hours/minutes but it was too depressing to put in the blog. Pretty impressive for a guy who started selling books out of his garage in 1994. What’s more impressive is the rate at which his company has grown. In 1998, when Amazon was worth a measly $1.8 billion, Bill Gates became the first dude ever to surpass the hundred-billion mark. In the twenty years since, their stock has gone from $18/share to $1531/share. They went from a handful of employees to over three-hundred-fifty-thousand. And they have their hands in everything from shipping and food to entertainment and technology.
There are all sorts of articles saying how easy it would be for Amazon to take over the world. I usually ignore them but whenever articles like this come out they get harder to ignore. Bezos is past the point of spending money on things. He can buy anything he wants. He now has the ability to change the world. Some people will say that’s a good thing and it very well could be. Bill Gates spent years using his money to eradicate polio in Africa and it worked. Other people will say it’s terrifying- that he has too much power, and would have too much influence should he get involved in politics. Both views are understandable. God forbid Bezos turned out to be some evil madman, he could hire an army and start his own country. Regardless, it’s wild to think that one dude has a hundred-fucking-billion dollars. If all that was too boring for you, here’s a link some to photos of his houses. Enjoy.
