Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Could Become World’s First Trillionaire and Nobody Seems Happy About It

The world’s richest man is suddenly catching flack online for a report he could become a trillionaire by 2026

File under “the rich get richer”: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — who already holds the title of the world’s richest person — is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, according to a months-old report that’s suddenly earned Bezos newfound scorn on Twitter.

The catch for Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant in 1994, is that he’ll have to wait until 2026 to hit the trillion-dollar milestone, according to Comparisun, an Israeli firm offering services to small businesses. The firm made its projection based on how fast his net worth has grown in the last five years (an average of 34% per year). Bezos still has some work to do before reaching a $1 trillion net worth, with Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index pegging his fortune at $143 billion on Thursday.

Interestingly, Comparisun’s estimation came out months earlier, before Amazon’s stock, of which Bezos owns about 11% of all shares, rallied during the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s suddenly picked up steam in recent days, as several outlets have reported on the eye-catching number.

And as expected, this has led to some blowback on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Thomas_A_Moore/status/1260788716693487616?s=20

Amazon has said it hired more than 100,000 new workers since March to help the company weather the surge in purchases its seen during the coronavirus outbreak. And the company’s stock price has spiked about 40% since mid-March. Amazon has also come under fire this week after one vice president resigned over the company’s treatment of its warehouse workers.

Last month, Bezos said he’d be donating $100 million to U.S. food banks to help with the fallout of COVID-19.

Comparisun’s report projects several other uber-wealthy tycoons could become trillionaires in the semi-near future, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. The firm projects Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg could become the youngest trillionaire ever at the age of 51 in 2036.

It’s probably worth pointing out that there are currently only three companies worth more than $1 trillion: Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is nearing the trillion-dollar mark. And if you’re wondering who the world’s first billionaire was, that was John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, in 1916.

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