AP/Ted S. Warren
- Bezos added more billions to his fortune on Friday after the value of his Amazon shares soared.
- The richest person in the world added an estimated $6.7 billion after Amazon reported stellar earnings.
- Watch Amazon's stock price move in real time here.
Amazon reported earnings on Thursday and crushed all of Wall Street's expectations. The earnings beat sent shares of Amazon skyward, along with Bezos' net worth.
Bezos was already the richest person in the world on Thursday, and the CEO added another estimated $6.7 billion to his net worth on Friday, as Amazon shares traded higher.
According to an SEC filing, Bezos owns about 78.9 million shares of Amazon, which jumped about $85 a share higher in early trading on Friday. To be fair, the billionaire's net worth increase is only on paper, and Bezos would have to sell his shares in order to realize the gains. It's also possible that Bezos has bought or sold some shares since the last filing.
The increase in the price of Amazon shares brings the billionaire's net worth to approximately $123.4 billion. The second richest person in the world, Bill Gates, is currently worth about $94.8 billion, according to data from Bloomberg. Most of Gates' wealth lies outside of Microsoft shares, which took a 1.35% tumble on Friday.
Bezos attributed Amazon's stellar quarter to the company's Alexa voice assistant, which saw impressive sales over the holidays. Bezos said the company would be doubling down on Alexa in the future, because of its surprising success.
Amazon shares are up 24.49% this year.
