A look into the fortunes of the world's leading billionaires as tech stocks surged on Monday (July 20), making many richer, led by Jeff Bezos, who gained over 400 billion baht in just one day.

On Monday the Nasdaq Index of the New York Stock Exchange hit an all-time high again, closing at 10,767.09 points, up 263.90 points (2.51%), breaking the previous record set on July 9, which closed at 10,547.75 points. This surge was driven by a strong performance from tech stocks, led by Amazon.com the online retail giant, which closed up nearly 8%, resulting in a significant increase in the net worth of tech billionaires.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index indicates that the net worth of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com increased by $13 billion, or about 411 billion baht, in just one day after the company's stock soared by 7.9%, raising Amazon's market value to $1.59 trillion on July 20.

This increase in Amazon's stock price is the largest since December 2018, as investors have become more confident about the trend of online shopping on Amazon's platform, which has already grown by 73% this year.

Since the beginning of 2020, Bezos, the world's number one billionaire at age 56, has seen his asset value increase by $74 billion to $189.3 billion despite the U.S., the world's largest economy, entering its most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.

If you ask how wealthy the CEO of Amazon is now, his personal wealth alone surpasses the market value of giants like Exxon Mobil Corp., the energy company, McDonald's Corp., the fast-food chain, and Nike Inc., the sportswear brand, which are valued at $179 billion, $142 billion, and $118 billion respectively.

Meanwhile, the soaring stock price of Amazon also benefited MacKenzie Bezos, Jeff Bezos's ex-wife, who became richer by nearly $4.6 billion on Monday, making her the 13th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with an asset value of $63.1 billion.

After her divorce from her former husband, MacKenzie received a share of the assets in the form of Amazon stock, amounting to 25% of what Bezos owned, or 4% of the company's total shares.

 

Other tech giants' stocks also surged, partly due to people needing to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased use of social media and online shopping, along with unprecedented economic stimulus efforts by governments and central banks worldwide.

In addition to Bezos, data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the world's second-richest person, increased his wealth by $671 million to $118 billion after his company's stock rose by 4.3% on the same day.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, the social media giant, who ranks fourth in the Bloomberg index, saw his wealth increase by $1.25 billion to $93.1 billion after his company's stock rose by 1.4%.

Since the beginning of 2020, Zuckerberg's asset value has increased by nearly $15 billion despite Facebook facing a wave of brand boycotts on its advertising platform.

Another notable figure is the owner of the increasingly popular electric vehicle business, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Inc., who saw his assets increase by $5.74 billion in one day, totaling $74.5 billion after his company's stock surged by 9.47%, raising Tesla's market value to over $263 billion on Monday.

Lastly, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Alphabet and Google, who ranks tenth in the Bloomberg index, saw his asset value increase by $1.89 billion to $71.5 billion after his parent company's stock rose by 3.1% on the same day.

Overall, the market value of major tech stocks such as Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, and Netflix increased by over $291 billion, or about 9.2 trillion baht in just one day, with Amazon experiencing the largest market value increase in this group at $117 billion.

SOURCE : www.bangkokbiznews.com