Jeff Bezos’ Net Worth In 2015 Makes Amazon CEO The Third-Richest Man In America Behind Bill Gates, Warren Buffett
As CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ net worth is largely tied to the success of the online retail giant. The rise of the Amazon stock caused the 51-year-old founder of Amazon to suddenly surge in wealth, taking him from the 13th-richest man in America all the way up to third place, ranking only behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
In a related report by the Inquisitr, actress Jennifer Lawrence’s net worth may have been harmed by sexism in Hollywood based upon a public essay she wrote. The goal for Jessica Simpson’s net worth is to become a billionaire, and you may be surprised to hear that she is not making the money based solely on her singing.
The rise in Jeff Bezos’ net worth may be something of a record. The Amazon CEO’s fortune jumped significantly when Wall Street pumped money into the Amazon stock on Thursday. The Amazon stock price has dipped a little during Friday’s morning hour trading time, but already it appears to be back on the rise.
According to Bloomberg Business, Bezos’ net worth jumped around 77 percent in 2015 due to investors believing in Amazon’s profits and growth in the cloud server industry. At the beginning of 2015, Bezos was worth $22 billion less, so the huge jump is more than the combined increases of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Besides making Bezos the third-richest man in America, he also became the fifth-richest man in the world. The second-best performing billionaire in 2015 is Spain’s Amancio Ortega, who is the world’s second-richest person in the world based upon the success of clothing retailer Inditex SA. China’s richest person, Wang Jianlin, has added 44 percent to his net worth in 2015, although Wang is 12th with $36 billion.
This newfound wealth may also continue to increase as the U.S. economy improves over time since Jeff Bezos’ net worth is largely comprised of Amazon stock, which represents 95 percent of his personal wealth.
“People don’t aspire to shop at Wal-Mart,” said Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners. “An improving economy is a negative for Wal-Mart. As incomes go up, people stop shopping there. Customers enjoy shopping at Amazon.”
Due to this issue, as Bezos has been on the uprise, the Walton family heirs have found themselves losing about a quarter of their net worth.
On Thursday, Jeff Bezos also made a commitment to make Amazon stockholders even richer. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the company is forecasting fourth-quarter operating income from $80 million to $1.28 billion, making the past history of profitability issues seem like a bad dream.
“The whole narrative about this company not being able to turn a profit is slowly starting to fade away,” said RJ Hottovy, an analyst at Morningstar. “All of the components are working together now.”
The increase in profits has largely come with the uptick in features offered by Amazon Web Services. In addition, Amazon has been adding robot labor to its warehouses, with this quarter alone seeing an increase in 30,000 robots.
But Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has also been highlighting new products like the low-cost Amazon Fire tablet.
“This is one more step in our mission to bring customers premium products at non-premium prices,” Bezos said.
This announcement actually led to a very awkward joke. Since the Amazon Fire tablets sell in a pack of six, Bezos compared the situation to alcohol.
“For the first time, we’re recommending you bring home a six-pack for the whole family,” he is quoted as saying by BostInno.
Jokes about giving alcohol to kids may be a bit weird, but if you had Jeff Bezos’ net worth, you could afford to laugh.
