Amazon Founder Now Worth $100 Billion

Jeff Bezos’ net worth rises as Amazon share price benefits from huge Black Friday sales surge. 

The idea or thought however that Black Friday is somehow alone is responsible for pushing Bezos’ personal wealth to stratospheric levels is only partially true.

Shares in Amazon have been climbing steadily for several years, and the result of this year’s Black Friday only served to push him over the line.

The continued rise in Amazon’s stock and confidence from investors seems to be justified. Newly released figures show that Black Friday online sales increased by almost 20% compared to last year. Some industry insiders have also estimated that this year, Amazon alone may have been responsible for for almost 50% of all online sales during the week of Black Friday.

Jeff Bezos’ online bookstore has done rather well.

On the up

It’s far cry from 1994, when Jeff Bezos started Amazon from his garage in Seattle. The 53-year-old is now richer than both Warren Buffet and another garage business startup, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates. Not that Bezos wasn’t already relatively wealthy. Before starting Amazon, he had been a Hedge-fund manager in New York, but his rise is no less impressive for that.

In 2012 the Amazon founder was only estimated to be a worth a paltry $21 billion by comparison. Bill Gates is now reported to the be the second richest man in the world. Gates current worth is just under $90 billion, give or take a few billion. Bill Gates has however given a massive part of his personal fortune away in recent years to philanthropic causes, most notably through his personal foundation.

Bezos tweeted in June of this year that he was looking into giving away money in a similar fashion, but he has not so far released any more information.