Jeffrey Bezos becomes the second richest person in the world

Billionaire Jeffrey Preston Bezos is once again the second richest person in the world. According to Forbes magazine, he has overtaken Frenchman Bernard Arnault – CEO of Louis Vuitton – and is now in second place. In first place is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as owner of X (formerly Twitter).

Valued at US$211 billion, the fortune was boosted by the rise in shares of Amazon, the company founded by Bezos. Since last year, there has been a 130% growth in total. In the “Kantar BrandZ” ranking, the multinational was positioned as the fourth most valuable brand in the world.

Jeffrey Bezos

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bezos will turn 60 in 2024. He holds degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. After graduating from college, he worked on Wall Street in the IT field.

In 1994, he founded Amazon after writing the company's business plan while traveling. Initially, the future multinational was located in its founder's garage, where he cataloged his own books for sale online. Bezos received financial help from his parents – US$300,000 – and was betting on the internet boom based on his previous work experience.

_{Amazon was founded by Bezos in 1994 (Photo: reproduction/Skorzewiak/Shutterstock)}

Amazon Growth

By 1999, Amazon was already publicly traded and also operated in Germany and the United Kingdom. Previously only offering books, the company began selling general items such as toys, electronics and cleaning products.

It was the second company in the world to reach the US$1 trillion mark in market value, in 2018. Currently, it focuses its actions mainly on e-commerce, although it also works in other areas. It was responsible for the launch of “Alexa”, an artificial intelligence that aims to help with everyday tasks. It also has a subscription service “Amazon Prime”recognized mainly by the platform of “Prime Video”. In total, the company has sites in 21 countries around the world.

Featured Photo: Jeffrey Bezos overtakes Bernard Arnault and becomes the second richest person (Reproduction/Alex Wong/Getty Images Embed)