Amazon is the end-all be-all biggest name in e-commerce right now, and the site’s meteoric rise has propelled founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to his new place as the second richest person in the entire world, sitting right behind Bill Gates. Bezos added over $10 billion to his fortune thus far in 2017, beating out Warren Buffet and Inditex S.A. founder Amancio Ortega. About $7 billion of that came as part of a massive equities shift following the election of Donald Trump, and about $1.5 billion of that came after Amazon stocks rose on the recent announcement that the site would be scooping up Dubai e-retailer Souq.com. Bezos’ new net worth of $75.6 billion leaves him second only to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who’s currently sitting on a cool $86 billion, which he’s using to pursue various projects in and out of the tech world, and to benefit a number of charities.
Bezos’ $7 billion rise during 2017 is the third largest on Bloomberg’s records, sitting behind Wang Wei and Mark Zuckerberg, who both cracked the $10 billion mark in their jumps up so far this year. Despite their faster rises, for now, Bezos’ massive net worth is larger. He was able to overcome Buffet due to him falling around $4.7 billion since the beginning of this month, when his net worth hit an all-time peak of $79.6 billion, while he surpassed Ortega despite a $2.1 billion gain for the year thus far. The miraculous upshot is one of the largest in Bezos’ personal history, as well.
Jeff Bezos taking his place among the richest people around is a long time coming; Amazon has sat at the top of the e-commerce heap for some time now, and has been encroaching more and more on traditional retail channels and other industries in recent years. The Amazon Echo saw the site conquer IoT overnight, while AmazonFresh helped them step into the area occupied by grocery stores and begin cutting into their business. Looming on the horizon, Amazon has ambitions in drone delivery, self-driving vehicles, and other moonshot-esque ventures to look to. The future is looking bright indeed for Amazon and its iconic founder, though surpassing Bill Gates as the richest person alive is quite the stretch as far as a next logical financial goal.