29.03.2024

Black Friday just made Jeff Bezos the world’s only $100-billionaire

The e-commerce giant’s ticker price jumped more than 2% on trader optimism over Black Friday sales, which were up 18.4% over last year.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is worth more than $100 billion after shares for the online retailer jumped today, Bloomberg News reports.

As Quartz previously reported, Amazon is promoting significant discounts as part of its Black Friday offerings, especially on items that facilitate ever more purchases from Amazon:

It’s offering a 20% discount on its newest Echo smart-home devices, the revamped Echo and Echo Plus, which let you order from Amazon through Alexa, the built-in voice assistant. Also on sale are its Fire tablets (which now also feature Alexa) and the newer Kindle models, which are excellent devices for reading ebooks bought on Amazon.

Product List price Sale price % change
Fire 7 Tablet 49.99 29.99 -40.01
Echo Dot 49.99 29.99 -40.01
Amazon Tap 129.99 79.99 -38.46
Fire TV Stick 39.99 24.99 -37.51
Fire 8 HD Tablet 79.99 49.99 -37.50
Kindle 79.99 49.99 -37.50
Fire HD 10 149.99 99.99 -33.34
Fire 8 HD Kids Edition 129.99 89.99 -30.77
Fire 7 Kids Edition 99.99 69.99 -30.00
Kindle for Kids Bundle 99.99 69.99 -30.00
Kindle Paperwhite 119.99 89.99 -25.00
Echo 99.99 79.99 -20.00
Echo Plus 149.99 119.99 -20.00
Amazon Cloud Cam 119.99 99.99 -16.67

Amazon is also offering discounts on a range of products from other manufacturers, including Sony TVs, K’NEX toys, Rubbermaid dishes, and various smart-home devices to sync up with your Echo.

The $100 billion milestone makes Bezos the first person to build a 12-figure net worth since 1999, when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reached that threshold, Bloomberg reported.

In July, Bezos unseated Gates as the world’s richest person. Gates’ net worth has dropped as he has stepped up his philanthropic efforts. In June, Gates made a donation of 64 million Microsoft shares to charity, his largest giveaway since he established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

Oxfam predicts that the world will have its first trillionaire (pdf) within 25 years, as the wealth of the world’s super-rich grows exponentially. Right now, Bezos is looking like the likeliest candidate to reach that milestone.

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