Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is now the third richest person in the United States, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
At the beginning of the year Bezos was listed as the twentieth richest person in the country.
However, the businessman’s net worth has increased by more than $22 Billion over the last 10 months – the most of anyone on the index.
He is now wealthier than the industrialists Charles and David Koch – owners of the second largest privately owned company in the US.
Bezos is estimated to have a personal fortune worth $55 billion, behind only Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Amazon posted better-than-expected quarterly results
The company announced third-quarter profit of $79 million on $25.4 billion in sales – far better than what analysts had expected.
According to its quarterly report, the increases were driven by its booming cloud-computing business, which this quarter posted operating income of $521 million, and tighter spending.
The company announced the results during after-hours trading on Thursday. The results helped its shares surge by around 11% to over $600 – almost double where the tech giant was last year. Amazon shares account for 93 percent of Bezos’ net worth.
The Walton family are among the worst performing billionaires this year
The worst-performing billionaires this year are Alice, Christy, Jim and Rob Walton. The Walton family owns over half of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. So far this year they are down a combined $43.4 billion.
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