E-commerce giant Amazon, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which had a humble beginning as a bookstore, has grown by leaps and bounds, and on Wednesday, the company’s market capitalization crossed the covetous $2 trillion mark for the first time ever. This has served to push up the net worth of founder Jeff Bezos, who is currently the world’s second richest man.
What Happened: Bezos’ net worth is now at $216 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth is only fractionally lower than Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who remains the richest person on the Earth. Meanwhile, Forbes’ real-time list of billionaires has Musk leading with a net worth of $220.6 billion compared to $210.6 billion for Bezos, who is placed second.
Amazon was founded by Bezos on July 5, 1994, in Bellevue, Washington and he took the company public on May 15, 1997. The billionaire remained the company’s CEO until July 2021 before handing over the reins to his predecessor Andy Jassy. Bezos, who now splits his time between his charities and his ...