Watch CBS News

Jeff Bezos, world's richest man, gets $2.8B richer in one day: Fortune

The rich get richer. Make that -- the richest got richer.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos -- already the wealthiest person on the planet -- saw his fortune balloon $2.8 billion in a single day, Forbes magazine estimates.

The magazine says the latest Bezos pot of gold was the result of a 2.5 percent rise in Amazon's stock price Tuesday, the day after the debut in Seattle of Amazon Go, the company's first cashier-less, checkout line-free brick and mortar store.

That brought the Bezos net worth to $113.5 billion, based on Forbes' calculations -- the highest it's ever been.

That's a big jump from the nearest people on Forbes' list of the richest people in the world: Bill Gates, who's worth about $92.5 billion and Warren Buffett, who's just behind Gates at $92.3 billion, according to Fortune.

"Bezos' 12-figure-fortune nominally makes him the wealthiest person since Forbes started tracking fortunes in 1982. If we factor in inflation, Bill Gates was richer back in 1999, when he briefly passed $100 billion -- worth roughly $150 billion in today's dollars," Forbes says.

Gates, Microsoft's founder, has given away some $36 billion, Forbes says, while Bezos, the son of a Cuban immigrant, has only started sharing his wealth recently.

Most of Bezos' wealth comes from his 16 percent stake in e-commerce giant Amazon, Fortune points out, adding that Amazon's total stock value of more than $650 billion makes it one of the most valuable companies in the world. 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.