Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has witnessed a rise in wealth, amassing an additional $19 billion within one month, according to data tracked by Nairametrics.
As of January 9, 2024, Bezos recorded a net worth of $176 billion. Fast forward to February 8, 2024, and this figure has soared to $195 billion, reflecting an impressive 10.8% surge.
This financial upswing is predominantly attributed to the performance of Amazon shares where Bezos holds a 10% stake, which ascended from $151.37 on January 9 to $169.84 on February 8, 2024.
Amazon’s robust growth is further spot on by its optimistic outlook, with expectations of net sales ranging from $138 billion to $143.5 billion, projecting an 8%-13% increase. Additionally, the company anticipates operating income between $8 billion and $12 billion, a substantial leap from the first quarter of 2023.
The e-commerce behemoth, with a market capitalization nearing $1.6 trillion, has demonstrated its ability to sustain top-line growth, particularly in higher-margin segments like the third-party marketplace, advertising, and AWS.
Amazon’s stock soared by 81% in 2023, marking its most successful year since 2015. However, investors are closely monitoring the company’s capacity to enhance the profitability of its vast online retail business while navigating challenges in the cloud-computing market. Despite its dominance and innovations, Amazon faces an impending antitrust battle with the U.S. government. In essence, the “Everything Store” juggernaut stands at the crossroads of market leadership, technological innovation, and regulatory scrutiny.
What you should know
The billionaire founder has a string of investments apart from Amazon such as Blue Origin. In April 2017, Bezos revealed that he finances Blue Origin by selling approximately $1 billion of Amazon stock annually.
This funding method, deducted from after-tax proceeds of share sales since 2014, reached $2 billion in 2021 as Blue Origin ventured into human-crewed flights. Bezos, who has divested around $30 billion in Amazon shares since 2002, strategically uses this capital for his aerospace endeavour.
Aside from his space ambitions, Bezos made notable acquisitions, including the Washington Post for $250 million in August 2013 and a superyacht, Koru, acquired for about $500 million in 2023.
In 2018, Bezos committed $2 billion to address social issues and pledged $10 billion in February 2020 to combat climate change. These contributions, once fulfilled, will be subtracted from his net worth.
Bezos had earlier disclosed plans to divest 50 million shares over 12 months as previously reported by Nairametrics.
