Amazon's Jeff Bezos Surpasses $100 Billion Net Worth (bloomberg.com)

Amid optimism for Amazon's Black Friday sales, Jeff Bezos' net worth jumped above $100 billion on Friday. The Amazon CEO's fortune reportedly surged $2.4 billion to $100.3 billion, after the retailer's shares grew more than 2 percent on Black Friday. Bloomberg reports: Online purchases for the day are up 18.4 percent over last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics, and investors are betting the company will take an outsized share of online spending over the gifting season. The $100 billion milestone makes Bezos, 53, the first billionaire to build a 12-figure net worth since 1999, when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates hit the mark. Bezos's fortune rose $32.6 billion this year through Thursday, the largest increase of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people. Amazon have climbed 5 percent this week alone.

Comments

He's rich

[Anonymous Coward]

We should listen to and take heed of his wise pronouncements.

Man, i bet Mr. Bezos has

[tgibson]

three different Loot Box subscriptions. By the way he dresses, a Loot Wear subscription as well.

With Trump, not for long

[Anonymous Coward]

With the destruction of Net Neutrality as the latest casualty of Trump's reign the future is looking very poorly for Amazon and every other liberal tech organization. Trump is set to bully everyone into submission, even if it means the destruction of silicon valley and the tech sector and he knows he has Amazon by the balls in more ways than one now. First is the cable co's putting all of Amazon's services in the slow lane. If Jeff complains the government can ask to block and the cable cos will do so, no questions asked. This happened before with AT&T when they blocked Pearl Jam, all because they spoke out against Bush. Trump is more power hungry than Bush so who knows how far this will go, but it won't be good. Most likely Bezos will lose everything and possibly every other tech giant.

Re:Charity

[HanzoSpam]

Maybe he could, but why should he? Even if you could argue he doesn't deserve that much wealth, why would the people you propose to give it to deserve it any more than he does? He should pay people for having not built Amazon?

There's no way in hell

[rsilvergun]

it's a good thing for a single person to command that much wealth. A democracy can't survive that kind of power imbalance. Something's got to give.

Re:There's no way in hell

[Anonymous Coward]

He's a self made and highly motivated person with great interest in advancing technology and getting us into space. It is valuable to the human race to have a few such individuals working to do stuff that governments are too bogged down in venality and bureaucracy to achieve. Technocrats do a pretty good job of improving the world.

Re:There's no way in hell

[ShanghaiBill]

it's a good thing for a single person to command that much wealth.

The total net worth of all Americans is about $90 trillion. $100 billion is less than 0.1% of that. John Rockefeller once owned 2% of all the wealth in America, so Bezos is 20-fold poorer.

A democracy can't survive that kind of power imbalance.

That would be a concern if all "the rich" were on the same side. They aren't. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. The WaPo exposed Roy Moore's sexploits, and has championed other liberal causes. This cancels out the Koch Brothers.

Something's got to give.

"The rich" have had undue influence for at least the last 10,000 years (wealth accumulation mostly coincided with the invention of agriculture). Yet somehow we have muddled through.

Re:There's no way in hell

[boudie2]

Cough...as of the first quarter of 2010, the Federal Reserve estimated that total public and private debt owed by American households, businesses, and government totaled $50 trillion...cough.

As a wise man once said, it's all air.

Re:There's no way in hell

[ShanghaiBill]

The total gross worth of all Americans is about $17tn. Hence the term Gross Domestic Product.

GDP is a measure of annual production, not accumulated wealth.

So that means that the net worth of all Americans is somewhere in the negatives.

Baloney.

Re:There's no way in hell

[Hognoxious]

You're comparing two things that don't even have the same units.

Re:There's no way in hell

[PJ6]

it's a good thing for a single person to command that much wealth.

The total net worth of all Americans is about $90 trillion. $100 billion is less than 0.1% of that. John Rockefeller once owned 2% of all the wealth in America, so Bezos is 20-fold poorer.

A democracy can't survive that kind of power imbalance.

That would be a concern if all "the rich" were on the same side. They aren't. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. The WaPo exposed Roy Moore's sexploits, and has championed other liberal causes. This cancels out the Koch Brothers.

Something's got to give.

"The rich" have had undue influence for at least the last 10,000 years (wealth accumulation mostly coincided with the invention of agriculture). Yet somehow we have muddled through.

The roots of inequality: Researchers chart rising inequality across millennia
Truth About Markets: Why Some Countries Are Rich And Others Remain Poor
Capital (Piketty)
Wealth Inequality in America

Yayy!

[Matt.Battey]

Jeff is pretty sweet, right guys? I mean like a butterscotch tab, am I right?

Re: 100 billion in wealth forever idle

[LordKronos]

You seem to not be aware that buffet and gates have both pledged to give the vast majority of their wealth to charities in their lifetime. Both are well underway with that plan already. In fact, Bezos is only #1 now because gates has already given away close to $30b. Bezos is still building his fortune, but hopefully he too will one day make the same pledge to use his fortune for charitable purposes.

FALSE!

[Soporific]

He has $100,000,000,600 now after my massive Amazon purchase today. I expect some gratitude here!

ftw

[AndyKron]

It must be nice to get rich a other people's expense.

Re: 100 billion in wealth forever idle

[pots]

You seem to not be aware

Nothing in your reply contradicted anything that the parent said.

Re: Charity

[dougdonovan]

jeff should do lunch with bill and talk serious investments to becoming the first Trillionaires. they are both young enough. remember, the one with the most toys wins and owning the planet...sweet.

Re:Charity

[JaredOfEuropa]

The problem I have with that idea is that it never ever stops there. Why cap wealth at $10B, or even 100 million? Surely 50 million is enough? Or 10? The vast majority of people in this world have a net worth of $1M so let's make that the cap. And then you end up with what we have here, with every "fortune" of over €25.000 slapped with a "wealth" tax.

Bottom line is: you don't get rich taxing rich people, as individuals they own a lot but there aren't enough of them. Take Bezos' fortune from him and the next guy will do a better job of hiding it in a tax haven. No, in the end it is the middle class they will come after. Always. Because that's where the money is.

Re:Charity

[JaredOfEuropa]

The vast majority of people in this world have a net worth of $1M

Should be: don't have.

money from temp agency workers

[Anonymous Coward]

bezos pockets the surplus value of labor he gets from temp agencies - think about it - in the past people could sell their labor on the open market and make a living - now the rich are getting richer because they've set up a system where workers can't do that - they have to go through temp agencies, contractors, and so on - so their pay is capped - essentially bezos and the rest are pocketing the surplus value that workers are creating rather than paying them

Re: 100 billion in wealth forever idle

[LordKronos]

The subject line: "100 billion in wealth forever idle". That and the association of bezos to gates and buffet implies that bezos money will be forever idle just like the other 2. But the other 2 have actually pledged to do plenty with their money.