Jeff Bezos’ net worth booms amid coronavirus; ex-wife Mackenzie now 2nd richest woman

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. (Image: Reuters)

While businesses across the world struggle to make money, Amazon is an exception; the e-commerce company has helped its founder Jeff Bezos become richer even amid the coronavirus crisis. The world’s richest person Jeff Bezos touched net worth of $171.6 billion on Wednesday after the company’s stocks surged 4.4 per cent, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires Index. The billionaire’s ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos also saw a surge in her fortunes, and has become the world’s second richest woman following Francosie Bettencourt Meyers, whose family owns and runs cosmetic and skincare brand L’Oreal. Mackenzie Bezos had taken 4 per cent stake in Amazon after the couple divorced last year. Mackenzie Bezos’ net worth was around $54.6 billion on Thursday.

With his current fortunes, Jeff Bezos is the richest person on the planet even after ceding some of his Amazon shares to Mackenzie Bezos in alimony. This is the first time since 2018 that the billionaires’ wealth has crossed the high of $167.7 billion, before his divorce. Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the closest competition to Jeff Bezos with the former having $109.9 billion to his name, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires’ Index. Other than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, French fashion mogul Bernard Arnault and family, Facebook fame Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer are among the top five richest persons in the world.

Jeff Bezos has added a whopping $56.7 billion in six months partly due to the consumer shift towards purchasing products through the e-retailer amid the coronavirus pandemic as countries across the world remained in a lockdown. The shift to e-commerce has been evident in India as well. As the company continued to remain operational amid lockdown, it also added temporary staff across the world to serve a rising number of orders. In India alone, the company has advertised for 75,000 temporary jobs in various departments.