Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw his wealth swell to $211 billion following a surge in Amazon stock prices. Amazon saw a rally of 4.7 percent after the US Department of Defense scrapped a cloud computing contract with Microsoft, reported Bloomberg. The jump added $8.44 billion to Bezos’ fortune, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded.

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Bezos, 57, stepped down as Amazon CEO on July 5. However, he still remains the chairman of the company and owns 11 percent of it.

The US Department of Defense announced that it was scrapping a two-year-old contract worth $10 billion with Microsoft for cloud computing services. Microsoft’s Azure service is Amazon’s main rival in the cloud computing space.

The cancellation of the high value contract of its rival saw the Amazon stock soaring. It is expected that the US Department of Defense will instead offer a multivendor contract that will see Microsoft and Amazon share the work.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos has seen a nearly 10 percent increase in his wealth in the past year. His fortune has surged by over $20 billion since the pandemic hit as a result of the steady rise of the Amazon stock. Earlier during the pandemic, Bezos’ fortune had reached $206.9 billion. The previous record for the most wealth was held by Elon Musk when he was briefly worth $210 billion on the back of a spectacular Tesla rally.

Mackenzie Scott, Bezos’ ex-wife, also saw her net worth increase by $2.9 billion by virtue of her ownership of 4 percent of Amazon’s stocks. Scott has given away $2.7 billion this year and is one of the most prolific billionaire philanthropists currently.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jul 7, 2021 6:49 PM IST