Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Becomes the World's First $200 Billion Man

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos became the world’s first person ever to hit a net worth of $200 billion on Wednesday, as the tech giant’s stock continued a steady climb that kicked off in mid-March, as the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S.

By midday Wednesday, Amazon’s share price had climbed 2.3% to $3,423 per share — helping push Bezos past the $200 billion threshold in the process. For comparison, Bezos is personally worth more than Nike, McDonald’s and Pepsi, which are all valued between $139 billion and $191 billion.

Amazon’s stock price has been on a tear over the last few months, as millions of people have been forced to stay inside and order more products online; the company’s share price has surged more than 100% since March 16, when it was trading for less than $1,700 per share.

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Bezos already held a substantial lead on the next closest rich guy, Bill Gates, who entered Wednesday with a net worth of $123 billion, according to Bloomberg. The bulk of his fortune stems from a 10.9% stake in Amazon — or about 54.5 million shares — which Bezos founded in Seattle in 1994.

It’s also worth pointing out Bezos would’ve hit the $200 billion mark sooner had he not finalized a divorce last year. His ex-wife, MacKenzie, is worth more than $64 billion after getting 20 million Amazon shares in the divorce settlement.

Overall, Amazon is worth $1.72 trillion — making it the second most valuable company behind Apple, which has a market cap of $2.16 trillion.

10 Best Paid Actors of 2020, From Jackie Chan to Dwayne Johnson (Photos)

In its annual calculation of Hollywood's top earning stars, Forbes looked at the earnings between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020.
10. Jackie Chan -- $40 million

These days, the 66-year-old martial-arts star makes the bulk of his earnings from endorsement deals, Forbes reported.
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9. Adam Sandler -- $41 million

The comedian earned raves for the indie "Uncut Gems" but raked in most of his money from a lucrative Netflix deal that was extended in January for four more films.
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8. Will Smith -- $44.5 million

The action star has had a string of box office hits in the last year, from "Aladdin" to "Gemini Man" to January's "Bad Boys for Life."
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7. Lin-Manuel Miranda -- $45.5 million

The creator and star of "Hamilton" scored big time when Disney paid $75 million for film rights to hit musical, and an adaptation of his first Broadway hit, "In the Heights" is also in the works.
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6. Akshay Kumar -- $48.5 million

The Bollywood star, who has a TV series in the works for Amazon Prime, earns the bulk of his money from endorsement deals.
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5. Vin Diesel -- $54 million

Even though "F9" was pushed from its planned April release, the action star still cashed in as a producer on the animated Netflix series "Fast & Furious Spy Races."
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4. Ben Affleck -- $55 million

The former big-screen Batman has earned bank thanks to a series of Netflix movies like "Triple Frontier" and "The Last Thing He Wanted."
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3. Mark Wahlberg -- $58 million

In addition to the Netflix hit "Spencer Confidential" earlier this year, Wahlberg has raked it in as a producer of shows like "Ballers" and the nonfiction hit "McMillions."
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2. Ryan Reynolds -- $71.5 million

According to Forbes, the "Deadpool" star earned a cool $20 million on each of his two Netflix movies, "6 Underground" and the upcoming "Red Notice." He also stars in and produced the upcoming feature "Free Guy" and narrates and produces the ABC competition series "Don't."
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1. Dwayne Johnson -- $87.5 million

For the second year in a row, The Rock tops the Forbes list -- including a $23 million payday for Netflix's "Red Notice" as well as his work as a star-producer on HBO's "Ballers" and last winter's "Jumanji: The Next Level."
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