PremiumNEW YORK/LONDON : Shares of his Amazon.com Inc. surged 12% to $2,100 in extended trading at 4:16 pm Thursday in New York, after the largest US e-commerce company reported fourth-quarter results that smashed Wall Street estimates.
Bezos, already the world’s richest person, added $13.2 billion to his fortune in about 15 minutes. At the current price, his net worth would be about $129.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bezos, 56, owns about 12% of Amazon’s outstanding stock, making up the bulk of his fortune. His ownership of closely held Blue Origin accounts for about $6.2 billion. The late surge Thursday added more than $90 billion to Amazon’s market value, pushing it above $1 trillion.
His ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, 49, also has reason to celebrate, as she owns about 4% of the Seattle-based retailer. She started the day as the world’s 24th-richest person, with a $37.1 billion fortune.
Bezos wasn’t the only tech titan with dramatic changes to their net worth this week following company earnings. Elon Musk’s fortune swelled by $2.3 billion in an hour Wednesday after shares of Tesla Inc. rose in extended trading on better-than-expected results. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer also saw huge gains after Microsoft Corp. reported results. Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune tumbled $4 billion as Facebook shares slid on its slowest-ever quarterly sales growth.
Bloomberg’s wealth ranking officially updates after the close of each trading day in the US, so Amazon’s latest surge, if it holds, won’t be reflected until after Friday’s close.
