Jeff Bezos’s Net Worth Rose $24 Billion in 2018

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 1:09PM EST · Published Dec 31, 6:30AM EST

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Jeff Bezos’s Net Worth Rose $24 Billion in 2018 — © David McNew / Getty Images

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), reportedly saw a $24 billion increase in his net worth in 2018, lifting his total to $123 billion. That increased his distance from Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, each of whom experienced a drop.

Bezos, 54 years old, is the world’s richest man, due primarily to his holdings in Amazon. Gates, in second place at 63, made his money due mostly to his Microsoft holdings. Over the course of 2018, his net worth fell almost $2 billion to $90 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which keeps a list of the world’s richest people. The figures change each day according to a Bloomberg formula. Buffett (88) ranks third on the list, with a net worth of $83 billion, down slightly more than $2 billion for the year. Buffet’s net worth is based almost exclusively on his holdings of Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the founder and chief executive.

Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. During the company’s first two years in business, it was called Cadabra. Amazon was initially an online bookstore that competed with several larger brick-and-mortar companies, led by Barnes & Noble. Over time, it diversified the inventory it sold and expanded into a large number of other countries. These include the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico.

Amazon continues to grow at a torrid pace. In the third quarter of 2018, its revenue rose 29% year over year to $56.6 billion. Of this, over $34 billion came from North America. International contributed just over $15 billion. Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing operation in the world, posted revenue of nearly $7 billion.

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Amazon’s e-commerce business has diversified well beyond the simple sale of goods online. It has built a massive subscription program called Prime, which has over 100 million members worldwide. Membership gives people a number of benefits, including free shipping and Amazon’s streaming video business, which competes with Netflix, Hulu and the streaming services of several media conglomerates. Amazon also has developed home assistant devices powered by its artificial intelligence Alexa software.

Based on Amazon’s own forecasts, its near-term growth will continue at its current rate. If that drives the company’s stock higher, Bezos may well post another sizable increase in his net worth in 2019.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.