![Jeff Bezos with Ash Carter in 2016 [Image Credit: Forbes/Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/3/10/660x290/b_502x220x82/jeff-bezos-with-ash-carter-in-2016-image-source-wikimediacommonsorg_1877151.jpg "Jeff Bezos with Ash Carter in 2016 [Image Credit: Forbes/Wikimedia Commons]")
The Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became the first billionaire in the 32-year old history of the Forbes Billionaire list surpassing Bill Gates who was valued at $90 billion. The third place went to the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffet while Bernard Arnault and Mark Zuckerberg took the fourth and fifth place.
Bezos' record-breaking jump
Jeff Bezos stands at the helm of the billionaires' list with his nearest competitor being Microsoft founder Bill Gates who lags $22 billion behind the Amazon co-founder. Bezos' wealth increased by $39.22 billion in just a year breaking the all-time record for the most gain in a year.
The previous record was held by Larry Ellison whose Net Worth shot up by $37.5 billion from 1999 to 2000 courtesy a rise in the Oracle shares during the dot-com era. With this whopping gain, Bezos broke his past record of gaining $27.6 billion from 2016 to 2017. The record-breaking jump also saw Bezos topping the list of people who have made the most substantial gains in the past 18 years.
Some people might be thinking this would be it for the Amazon founder but according to the recent data released by Forbes Bezos is showing no signs of slowing down having gained $15.8 billion in the past month taking his net worth to $127.8 billion already. With the recent trades and data, it seems highly likely that Bezos is on his way to breaking his own record in the coming year.
The reason behind Bezos' success
The main reason behind Bezos' success is the ever-rising rates of Amazon Inc. stocks in the market. Apart from being the largest online retailer on the block, Amazon has entered the online streaming service, and its evergreen cloud is still going strong. The company has kept up with changing times, and it's virtual personal assistant Alexa has taken the market by storm and is continuously changing to cater to the users' needs.
Because of the immense success of Amazon in the various fields that it has entered the stock prices of one share have gone up from $34 in 2007 to $1448.59 in February 2018. Investors and experts have predicted that the shares would continue to grow exponentially judging by Amazon's performance in the market and are expected to hit an all-time high of $2000 by 2019.
Amazon started online grocery stores across India and other Asian markets recently and is set to continue disrupting the existing businesses by offering multiple add-ons to prime members in all the genres of its functioning. With that being said, it looks like Bezos is there to stay at the top of the list and it seems very unlikely that he would be dethroned from that position for at least the coming two years.
