Jeff Bezos’ wealth balloons by $12 billion as Amazon inventory soars 11 p.c

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos noticed his private internet value improve by a whopping $12 billion on Friday morning as the e-commerce giant’s stock price soared by some 11% in pre-noon buying and selling — the most important single-day bounce up to now this 12 months.

The Seattle-based firm, whose inventory was buying and selling at practically $143 per share as of 11:30 a.m. Japanese time on Friday, surged after dazzling Wall Avenue with an earnings report that blew away analyst expectations.

Bezos, the third richest person in the world behind Tesla and X mogul Elon Musk and luxurious model service provider Bernard Arnault, is now value an estimated $163.5 billion, according to Forbes.

The 59-year-old Bezos, who stepped down from the CEO position at Amazon in late 2021 so that he could focus on his space exploration firm Blue Origin, derives his wealth from possession in Amazon inventory.

He has additionally spent a lot of his free time globetrotting on his $500 million yacht with fiance Lauren Sanchez after the couple got engaged in May.

Bezos, who nonetheless serves as Amazon’s govt chairman, owns round 992.6 million shares, in keeping with the corporate’s filings with the SEC.

Amazon, which added about $120 billion to its market worth, surged on Friday on indicators that each its development engines, e-commerce and cloud-computing, have been faring properly in an unsure economic system, serving to defend the broader market from Apple’s 2.5% slide after gloomy iPhone gross sales.

The corporate’s gross sales grew 11% to $134.4 billion within the second quarter — a rise from $121.2 billion throughout the second quarter of a 12 months in the past.

The gross sales figures blew away analyst predictions of $131.4 billion.

Amazon additionally reported a pointy improve in revenue as its internet revenue reached $6.7 billion within the second quarter — a far cry from the $2 billion internet lack of the second quarter final 12 months.

Amazon Internet Companies, the money-making cloud computing division, generated $22.14 billion in gross sales — surpassing analyst estimates of $21.71 billion.

The corporate stated it expects its internet gross sales to proceed rising within the third quarter to between $138 billion and $143 billion — a rise of between 9% and 13% from the identical quarter final 12 months.

Bezos’ successor, CEO Andy Jassy, credited AWS’s embrace of a “slew of generative AI releases” which allowed it to “add to its significant management place” in cloud-computing.

Jassy additionally cited the “sturdy demand” for promoting companies fueled partly by Amazon’s acquisition of broadcast rights to the NFL’s “Thursday Evening Soccer” bundle.