Jeff Bezos becomes world’s first $200 billion man

Washington: The world’s richest person, and the founder of Amazon.com Inc. Jeff Bezos eclipsed $200 billion on Wednesday as shares of the e-commerce giant climbed to a record.

The move simultaneously pushed his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, 50, to the brink of becoming the world’s richest woman.

Bezos’ net worth now is up by $4.9 billion, making the 56-year-old the world’s first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune.

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As of 1:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the Amazon founder and CEO is worth $204.6 billion—nearly $90 billion more than the world’s second-richest person, Bill Gates, who’s currently worth $116.1 billion, Forbes said.

The person to come closest is Bill Gates. Gates was the world’s first-ever centibillionaire. Near the height of the dot-com bubble, when Microsoft reached its then-peak in 1999, Gates’ net worth surpassed $100 billion, roughly $158 billion in today’s dollars.

Forbes predicts Bezos would had been even richer had he not gone through the “most expensive” divorce settlement in history last year.