Amazon is opening a new office in New York City. Here are 11 mind-blowing facts that show just how wealthy CEO Jeff Bezos really is., Business Insider - Business Insider Singapore
by Katie Warren, Business Insider US- Amazon is opening a new office in New York City, the company announced on Friday. The news comes less than a year after the company abandoned its plans for an NYC-based headquarters.
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is worth an estimated $109 billion, according to both Forbes and Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
- That makes Bezos roughly 20% richer than the British monarchy.
- While Bezos is one of the richest people in the world, his current ranking among the world’s billionaires is unclear.
- In November, Bill Gates surpassed Bezos to reclaim his spot as the world’s richest person after two years.
- But while Forbes ranks Bezos as the world’s richest person once again, Bloomberg’s calculations put Gates just ahead of him, with an estimated $110 billion net worth.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Amazon is opening a new office in New York City’s Hudson Yards neighborhood, the company announced on Friday.
The company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is one of the richest people on the planet. Worth an estimated $109 billion, Bezos is 20% richer than the British monarchy.
The Amazon CEO has been the world’s richest person for more than two years, but that status has become unclear in recent weeks.
In November, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates surpassed Bezos to reclaim his spot at the top of the billionaire rankings. Now, Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index pegs Gates’ wealth at $110 billion – $1 billion more than Bezos. But Forbes ranks Bezos as the world’s richest person, with Gates trailing by almost $3 billion.
Bezos retained his ranking as the world’s richest person even following his divorce from MacKenzie Bezos in 2019. She kept a 4% stake in Amazon worth roughly $35.7 billion, making her the fourth-richest woman in the world.
Though Jeff Bezos’ annual salary is only $81,840, most of his wealth comes from his Amazon shares. The world’s richest man makes $2,489 per second, or more than twice what the median US worker makes in one week, according to Business Insider’s calculations last year.
Here are 11 mind-blowing facts that show just how wealthy Bezos really is.
1. Bezos is worth $109 billion despite being paid an annual salary of just $81,840, less than what most US representatives take home.
Of course, a large portion of Bezos’ wealth is tied to Amazon stock, not his salary.
Business Insider last year calculated how much Bezos actually makes in a year, based on the change in his net worth year-over-year, and found it to be closer to $8.9 million.
It’s even more impressive if you break that down to how much Bezos makes every day, every hour, and even every second.
2. Bezos makes $2,489 per second — more than twice what the median US worker makes in one week.
That’s $149,353 per minute.
As Business Insider’s Hillary Hoffower previously reported, that means that in just one minute, the Amazon chief makes more than three times what the median US worker makes in a year: about $47,000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
3. After divorcing MacKenzie Bezos and giving up 25% of the Amazon stock owned by the couple, Jeff Bezos kept his ranking as the richest person in the world.
MacKenzie Bezos is now the fourth-richest woman in the world, after the L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, Walmart heiress Alice Walton, and Mars candy company heiress Jacqueline Mars.
MacKenzie, who was one of Amazon’s first employees, is worth an estimated $35.2 billion.
4. With his $109 billion, Bezos has a net worth equivalent to 23% of the top 100 US college endowments.
The three richest colleges in the US in 2018 based on the size of their endowments were Harvard University, with $38.3 billion, the University of Texas system, with $30.9 billion, and Yale University, with $29.4 billion.
Bezos’ fortune is greater than those three universities’ endowments combined – with more than $10 billion to spare.
5. Bezos is so rich that an average American spending $1 is similar to Bezos spending $1.1 million.
The median net worth of an average US household is $97,300. Dividing $109 billion by $97,300 comes to about $1.1 million.
6. The Amazon CEO is 20% richer than the British monarchy.
The British royal family was worth an estimated $88 billion in 2017, according to Forbes.
7. Bezos is worth about the equivalent of the entire gross domestic product of Slovakia.
The service sector in Slovakia accounts for about 61% of the central European country’s $109 billion GDP.
8. Bezos’ net worth is greater than the GDP of Iceland, Afghanistan, and Costa Rica — combined.
Iceland’s GDP is about $24.5 billion, Afghanistan’s is $19.9 billion, and Costa Rica’s is $60.46 billion, for a total of almost $105 billion.
9. According to the Social Security Administration, the average American man with a bachelor’s degree will earn about $2.2 million in his lifetime. Bezos makes that in just under 15 minutes.
According to the SSA, the average American woman with a bachelor’s degree will earn $1.3 million in her lifetime.
Bezos, who has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, makes $149,353 every minute, according to Business Insider’s calculations last year.
10. Even if a moderate wealth tax had been implemented almost 40 years ago, Bezos would still be the richest American, and the second-richest person in the world.
At the end of 2018, Bezos was worth $160 billion.
If the US had introduced a moderate wealth tax in 1982 – when the first Forbes 400 data on American billionaires was published – his net worth would now be about half that, or $86.8 billion, according to a recent study published in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
But even with a mere $86.8 billion fortune, Bezos would still be the richest American and the second-richest person in the world, outranked only by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who’s currently worth $95.5 billion.
A wealth tax has been a hot topic among the Democratic presidential candidates in 2019, with both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren calling for increased taxes on the super-rich.
11. Bezos has lost more money in 2019 than any other billionaire in the world, but he’s still the richest — or perhaps second-richest — of them all.
The Amazon CEO is worth $15.6 billion less than he was at the beginning of 2019, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.