The founder of Amazon has surpassed Elon Musk to become the wealthiest person in the world, a position he has held since the fall of 2021, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Bezos’ net wealth was $200 billion. Both Musk and Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, have personal fortunes of $198 billion and $197 billion, respectively. The index, which tracks individual fortunes in relation to market and economic fluctuations and other reports, has seen Musk, Arnault, and Bezos take turns at the top spot in recent years.
The online retail behemoth Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994 from his Seattle-area garage, is a major contributor to his fortune. In addition to purchasing the Washington Post for $250 million, he established the space business Blue Origin.
In the midst of selling off part of his Amazon shares, he reassumes the unofficial title of wealthiest person in the world. Bezos may have had tax reasons for selling over $8.5 billion worth of Amazon shares in the past several weeks.
In an interview last year, he revealed his plans to relocate from Seattle to Miami, where he could be closer to his parents and where Blue Origin has some operations. Neither income nor capital gains taxes are levied on individuals in Florida.
At the same time, Washington state has increased its taxes on the very rich. On top of the $262,000 annual exemption, lawmakers have imposed a 7% excise tax on net long-term capital gains. The profit made when an investment is sold is known as capital gains. A case challenging the new Washington state tax was just denied by the United States Supreme Court.
According to tax attorneys, Bezos might have saved up to $600 million by selling his shares after moving to Florida, rather than staying in Washington state and paying the state’s taxes. According to Lewis Horowitz, a tax attorney from Seattle, knowing the initial value of the stocks he sold is necessary to calculate his precise savings.
If our lawmakers hadn’t anticipated that rich individuals would relocate to escape the tax, the question would have a longer answer, according to Horowitz. “And there would be additional company founders in the Sunshine State, the Lone Star State, and Nevada.”
The current executive chairman of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, bought a Miami home last year and frequently takes his partner, Lauren Sanchez, out on their $500 million yacht. In 2024, his net worth grew by almost $23 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.
Shares of Musk’s electric-vehicle firm, Tesla, have fallen nearly 24% year-to-date, resulting in a $31 billion decline in his net worth. Earlier this year, a judge gave Musk a devastating blow by striking down his $55.8 billion Tesla bonus plan. The judge in Delaware found serious flaws in the procedure that had led to the package’s approval.
It is common for founders and executives to have a portion of their wealth invested in the stock of their companies. Their wealth measurements are susceptible to stock market and other asset volatility, making it difficult to determine their precise net worth.
Along with other ultra-wealthy individuals, Musk joined the Giving Pledge in 2012, committing to give away the vast majority of his fortune to good causes. Bezos has not yet joined the campaign, but he has stated his intention to donate much of his wealth to organizations that combat climate change and provide financial support to those who can bring the politically divided world together.
In 2021, the net wealth of the serial entrepreneur known as Musk surpassed $300 billion. He sold some of his Tesla shares that year to help pay for the $44 billion he paid to acquire Twitter (now X), a social media firm.
Space is where Musk and Bezos clash. In the year 2021, Bezos sent one of his Blue Origin rockets into orbit. Musk’s SpaceX is strengthening its ties to the United States military and intelligence communities while simultaneously launching a number of its own rockets into orbit.
Mars colonization is Musk’s ultimate goal. In a less-than-subtle jab at such aspirations, Bezos once said, “Go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first and see if you like it, because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars.”
Musk, on the other hand, has used the term “monopoly” to describe Amazon on occasion. When Musk surpassed Bezos in wealth in 2021, he apparently referenced the wealth ranking by tweeting an emoji depicting a silver medal with the number two on it to Bezos.