Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ already richer than before mega 2019 divorce as lockdown boom sees fortune soar to $171 billion

AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth has soared to $171.6billion – more than before his divorce settlement.

Bezos, 56, gave up a quarter of his stake in Amazon.com Inc as part of his separation from wife Mackenzie last year.

AFP - Getty

The Amazon founder, seen here in 2019, is now worth more than $171bn[/caption]

Shares surged in the Seattle-based online retailer by 4.4 per cent Wednesday to $2,878.70, boosting Bezos’s fortune and beating his previous highest wealth of $167.7bn on September 4, 2018, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

Bezos owns 11 per cent of the Amazon stock and is widely considered to be the world’s richest man.

His wealth has grown by $56.7bn this year alone.

Due to her divorce settlement Mackenzie, who got 4 per cent of the company’s stock, is now worth $56.9bn, making her the second wealthiest woman in the world, behind L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Earlier this week the company said it would pay out around $500million to give front line workers $500 each to help with pandemic hazard pay.

Bezos has come under fire during the pandemic with protestors demanding conditions improve for workers during the coronavirus outbreak.

While the financial future looks bleak for many companies during the coronavirus crisis, it has never looked better for Bezos who has become even richer during the pandemic.

While Bezos earns most of his money through Amazon he also owns a staggering amount of property, including a ranch with a space station.

Bezos wrote down the business plan for Amazon during a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle in 1994.

He initially set up the company in his garage after leaving his job at a hedge fund company.

In May 2016, Bezos sold slightly more than one million shares of his holdings in the company for $671million.

On August 4, 2016, he sold one million of his shares at a value of $756.7million.

Bezos and wife MacKenzie revealed early last year in a joint statement that their 25-year marriage was over.

He had wed the novelist in 1993 after meeting while working in New York.

The split is said to have been triggered after Bezos had an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez, the glamorous wife of talent agent Patrick Whitesell, for eight months.

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Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos were divorced last year[/caption]

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Protestors staged a demonstration recently outside Bezos’s home in Washington DC[/caption]

AFP or licensors

Bezos has increased his fortune by nearly $57bn this year alone[/caption]