Mexico City- Although Jeff Bezos, 57, who founded the online retail company from his garage nearly three decades ago, no longer serves as Amazon CEO Monday, he continues to grow.
The magnate became the richest man in history when his net worth rose to $211 billion on Tuesday, according to a Bloomberg Billionaires report.
This puts Bezos ahead of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has a net worth of $181 billion. Bernard Arnault, president and CEO of luxury goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is ranked third with a fortune of $169 billion.
The record for Bezos comes the same week he resigned as Amazon CEO, fulfilling his February 2021 promise to hand the job over to Andy Gacy, the former CEO of Amazon Web Services.
In a press release rescued by People magazine, Amazon confirmed that 2020 was a very successful year for the company, growing from $11.6 billion in net income in 2019 to $21.3 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Amazon shares rose 4.7 percent to $3,675.74 after the US government announced it was canceling a 10-year computing contract awarded to Microsoft in 2019, according to the Barrons specialist portal.
By Wednesday morning, Amazon shares were trading above $3,700, an all-time high.
Now that he has stopped running day-to-day operations at Amazon, Bezos, who remains the company’s CEO, is expected to shift his focus to the Bezos Earth Fund, his initiative to support scientists and NGOs that help fight climate, as well as Blue Origin, his space company.
“I haven’t had more energy, and this is not about retirement,” he said in a letter to employees earlier this year. “I’m very excited about the impact that I think these organizations can have.”
On July 20, Bezos and his brother Mark will fly into space aboard the Blue Origin spacecraft, New Shepard.
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