Amazon chief executive and founder, Jeff Bezos has sold 1 million shares from his stake in the e-commerce giant for $3.1 billion.
American entrepreneur Bezos had already sold $4.1 billion worth shares this year alone which is not expected to impact his overall fortune which has seen a meteoric rise since the advent of COVID-19.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Amazon CEO still holds more than 54 million shares and is worth $189.8 billion. His net worth has grown by $74.9 billion this year with Amazon stock rising 73 percent.
The biggest hit to Bezos’s wealth was his divorce last year. His ex-wife MacKenzie Scott received a 4 percent stake in Amazon as part of the split. Ms. Scott is now the 13th-richest person in the world. with a net worth of $61.6 billion.
She recently donated about $1.7 billion to several causes including racial equity, climate change and public health. The novelist and venture philanthropist have pledged to give away a majority of her wealth.
Even though the pandemic has seen the world’s wealthiest people become richer, Jeff Bezos is pulling apart from all of them. He is $70 billion wealthier than Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the second-richest man in the world. Mr. Bezos is now at the cusp of another record of exceeding his fortune to $200 billion.
