Amazon's Jeff Bezos Added $13.5 Billion to His Fortune in 15 minutes

For a quarter of an hour on Thursday, Jeff Bezos was raking in nearly $1 billion a minute.

After Amazon reported fourth-quarter results that smashed Wall Street estimates, shares of the e-commerce company surged 12 percent to $2,100 in extended trading on Thursday afternoon.

Thanks to the surge Bezos, 56, added $13.2 billion to his fortune in about 15 minutes. At the current price.

Overall, the price jump added more than $90 billion to Amazon’s market value, pushing it above $1 trillion.

Thanks to her four percent share of the Seattle-based retailer, Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos, who started the day as the world’s 24th-richest person, also made a substantial addition to her $37.1 billion fortune.

Amazon also had a strong fourth quarter in terms of membership as the online retailer reported it now has more than 150 million Prime members, up 50 percent from the last time Amazon released the number in 2018.

“Amazon blew all expectations out of the water during the holiday quarter,” eMarketer analyst Andrew Lipsman told USA Today.

Already the world’s richest person, the Amazon CEO is now worth about $129.5 billion thanks to the surging shares, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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