Following Amazon ‘s final quarterly earnings report for 2019 — in which the company told investors it managed to achieve $87.4 billion in revenue — its shares jumped by 11 percent. Apart from pushing the retailer’s market capitalization above the $1 trillion mark, the surge in its shares also led to a massive increase in the total net worth of its CEO, Jeff Bezos .
According to a Bloomberg report, the personal fortune of Bezos — already the world’s richest man — increased by just over $13.2 billion in a little over 15 minutes of trading. This addition to his fortune makes him worth about $129.5 billion.
The Bloomberg report adds that the 56-year-old Bezos owns nearly 12 percent of Amazon’s outstanding stock. The surge also gives him a comfortable lead over Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who remains the world’s second-richest person with a personal fortune of over $116 billion.
The surge in share prices also helped MacKenzie Bezos’ net worth jump to more than $37.1 billion. Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, who owns 4 percent of Amazon’s stock, is now the world’s 24th richest person.
With the recent uptick, Amazon is back in the list of trillion-dollar companies from the U.S. The others in the list are Apple, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet.
According to Ars Technica , Amazon’s excellent sales in the 2019 holiday quarter played a crucial role in driving up its revenues. For the last quarter, the company reported a 21 percent increase in sales, year-over-year. This increase was also a result of its streamlined and improved delivery network. It’s also been claimed that the tech giant now has more than 159 million Amazon Prime members across the world.
JUST IN: Jeff Bezos, already the world’s richest person, just added $13.2 billion to his fortune in about 15 minutes after Amazon shares surged in extended trading, bringing his net worth to about $129.5 billion https://t.co/juhQ8A6eSO pic.twitter.com/Like3QQuZ0
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) January 30, 2020
The company’s Amazon Web Services arm also reported a 34 percent year-over-year increase in sales in the past quarter. This led to Amazon achieving a sales figure totaling $9.95 billion in revenue.
Challenges remain in Amazon’s path after it recently lost its bid for a major government contract known as project JEDI. The government awarded the contract worth around $10 billion to Amazon’s archrival Microsoft. The company also competes with Google’s Cloud Services in the same space.
The news of Bezos’ massive wealth spurt comes just days after several reports claimed that the Saudi government was behind a hack of his smartphone, which unearthed evidence of an affair he was having.
The billionaire was in the news in 2019 after the story of his affair with Emmy Award-nominated American media personality Lauren Sanchez was made public. Steamy photos of Bezos and Sanchez were published by the National Enquirer , leading to a massive controversy.