Jeff Bezos now worth an astounding $200-plus billion
Jeff Bezos is the living embodiment of the old adage that "the rich get richer," with the Amazon founder's net worth on Wednesday surpassing the $200 billion mark for the first time.
Bezos' personal wealth rose to its current staggering level as the stock price of his e-commerce company hit a record high of $3,438 per share.
At the same time, a rally in Tesla shares has pushed CEO Elon Musk's net worth above $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, a ranking of the 500 wealthiest people on the globe.
The escalation of wealth is particularly apparent at the upper end of the index and is largely driven by a rally in tech stocks, as the coronavirus prompts consumers to do more of their buying online.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, also saw his net wealth surpass $100 billion this month.
Widening income inequality has fueled efforts to limit the gap by progressive lawmakers including Senator Bernie Sanders, who this month proposed legislation to tax "extreme" wealth gains amid the ongoing pandemic.
The fact that Jeff Bezos became the world's first $200 billion man at a time of unprecedented human pain and suffering is morally grotesque.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 26, 2020
No. Billionaires should not be allowed to make $800 billion during a pandemic.
Our job: Tax the rich and expand Medicare to all. https://t.co/6qPvbB8avT
Bezos, who started Amazon in 1994, has been the wealthiest person on the planet since 2017.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world, having amassed a personal fortune now worth $124 billion.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently became a billionaire as the market price of his company — the most valuable on the planet — surged to $2 trillion. Cook's net worth is not even a quarter of that of the person at the bottom of the Bloomberg list, Indian industrialist Vikram Lal, whose personal wealth is estimated at $4.5 billion.