Well, well, well, just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, think again. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has become the first person in history to hit a net worth of US$200 billion (nearly AU$300 billion), which is reason enough to spit out your Mi Goreng.
Yes, that’s right, the multi-billionaire just got a whole lot richer, reaching the outlandish new milestone on Wednesday according to Forbes. Apparently, his stocks have been climbing ever since the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, millions of Americans face homelessness and poverty every day.
Amazon’s share price climbed another 2.3% on Wednesday to US$3,423 (AU$4730), which brought Bezos to a net worth of over $200 billion. Yikes.
Microsoft Founder Bill Gates doesn’t come close to this man with a net worth of US$123 billion. Hell, not even companies like McDonald’s, Nike and Pepsi have a net worth bigger than this man, revealed TMZ.
What’s even scarier is when you try to comprehend how much $200 billion really is. When Bezos was projected to hit the $160 billion mark earlier this year, social media personality Humphrey Yang took up the challenge of counting the honcho’s wealth in rice on TikTok.
Rice. Part two: Jeff Bezos net worth represented visually by rice. pic.twitter.com/kYIoyxLgMW
— Humphrey Yang (@Humphreytalks) February 28, 2020
What’s more alarming is that 50% of the US has a combined negative net worth equal to Bezos’ positive net worth. Just some rice for thought.
Bezos would’ve actually hit the world record sooner if he hadn’t gone through a $127 billion divorce with ex-wife Mackenzie Scott. Thankfully some of the billions of dollars she made from the divorce has gone to a good cause, donating nearly $2 billion to charity this year.
According to Scott, many of the charities she donated to were racial equality, gender organisations, and supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
“On this list, 91% of the racial equity organisations are run by leaders of colour, 100% of the LGBTQ+ equity organisations are run by LGBTQ+ leaders, and 83% of the gender equity organisations are run by women,” Scott said.
Too bad Bezos can’t be more like his wife.
