Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is once again the richest person in the world, despite his divorce last year which cost him a quarter of his stake in the tech giant.
Bezos, 56 – who founded the e-commerce company out of his basement in Seattle, Washington in 1994 – is worth $113billion today, only a $18billion drop from his $131billion in 2019, despite giving $36billion worth of stocks to ex Mackenzie.
He managed to remain in the top spot despite the coronavirus pandemic cutting the number of people on Forbes’ Richest Billionaires List, bringing the total down 56 people from last year to only 2,095 in 2020.
The magazine said that only 12 days ago there were 226 more billionaires on their list, noting that of the remaining group, 51% percent were poorer than last year.
Collectively they’re worth $8trillion, which is down $700billion from 2019’s billionaires.
In the case of Bezos, Amazon’s shares have risen 15 percent since 2019.
FORBES 10 RICHEST BILLIONAIRES 2020
1 Jeff Bezos
$113bn (2020) $131bn (2019)
2 Bill Gates
$98bn(2020) $96.5bn (2019)
3 Bernard Arnault
$76bn (2020) $76bn (2019)
4 Warren Buffett
$67.5bn (2020) $82.5bn (2019)
5 Larry Ellison
$59bn (2020) $62.5bn (2019)
6 Amanico Ortega
$55.1bn (2020) $62.7bn (2019)
7 Mark Zuckerberg
$54.7bn (2020) $62.3bn (2019)
8 Jim Walton
$54.6bn (2020) $44.6bn (2019)
9 Alice Walton
$54.4billion (2020) $44.4bn (2019)
10 Rob Walton
$54.1billion (2020) $44.3bn (2019)
The company has been in high demand since the coronavirus outbreak which has enforced strict social distancing measures around the world.
Whereas many companies have suffered during business shutdowns, Amazon has thrived and has even hired 100,000 new employees to cope with the surge in demand for deliveries.
Securing his position for a third year running, Bezos – whose company also offers the Amazon Prime streaming service – remained above Bill Gates on the list.
Gates, 64, has pledged $100million to help fight COVID-19 via his Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation.
He managed to gain $1.5billion in the space of a year and is worth $98billion.
Last week Bezos donated the same amount to Feeding America as food banks have become overwhelmed with people in need of assistance.
The list came out Tuesday when in the US, the virus had killed over 11,000 people and more than 368,000 were infected.
France’s Bernard Arnault, 71, appeared third on the list, moving up one spot from last year, despite the family, which owns fashion giant LVMH, having exactly the same net worth.
Last November, the owners of Louis Vuitton and Sephora purchased Tiffany & Co. in what was believed to be the largest luxury brand acquisition deal ever at a $16.2billion exchange.