Amazon.com Inc. founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has a lot to be happy about these days.
Last Friday, the online retail giant's market value reached $250 billion to overtake Wal-mart Stores Inc. $230 billion to become the most valuable retailer in the world. Amazon's market value surged after it surprised with $92 million in profit during second quarter when the market was expecting a loss.
Bezos, who is Amazon's largest stockholder, got a boost from the tide that lifted the company, with his net worth rising to $50.5 billion or $7 billion higher according to Bloomberg. It added that Amazon's ballooning market value vaulted Bezos past billionaire brother David and Charles Koch, who are each worth $50.1 billion.
Bloomberg said its monitoring on its Billionaires Index showed that Bezos began the year ranked 20th among the world's wealthiest with $28.6 billion to his name, but he has steadily climbed the rankings with his net worth ballooning by 75 percent.
Time.com noted that at the height of Amazon's stock surge on Friday, Bezos's net worth rose by as high as $8 billion after the shares traded for a record $580.57 apiece. However, the Seattle-based company's shares closed at $529.42 billion cutting Bezos's gains by half.
Bezos financial success is closely tied with Amazon, a company he founded in 1994 and which he still owns an 18 percent stake or close to 84 million shares as of May 14.
Time.com estimated that Bezos's stake in Amazon is worth more than some companies in the S&P 500 such as courier giant FedEx Corp, machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. and streaming media producer Netflix Inc.
Time.com added that Bezos's has been spreading his wealth around, having donated about 5 percent of his Amazon's shares to charity since 2011 based on filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
