Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos
Despite uncertainty around the results of the presidential election, the U.S. stock market had its best week since April, helping some of the world’s richest add billions of dollars to their fortunes.
The market rally has made the world’s richest person, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, $13.9 billion (UShs52 trillion) richer this week, giving him a net worth of $193.4 billion, Forbes calculates.
Between Friday, October 30 and Friday, November 6, Amazon’s stock jumped over 9%, compared to the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which rallied 9%, the S&P 500, which was up 7.3%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rose 6.9%.
In addition to Amazon, other big tech stocks led the market higher this week. As election results pointed to a split Congress—with Republicans looking likely to hold the Senate, that bolstered shares of major tech companies like Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet. Wall Street analysts expect that under a divided Congress, Big Tech is less likely to face heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s fourth richest person, also saw his fortune rise this week. With Facebook’s stock up 11.5% this week, his net worth rose by nearly $11 billion, to $107.7 billion.
Other big gainers this week: The world’s second richest person, LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, gained $11 billion, pushing his net worth to $124.3 billion. Shares of his luxury goods giant LVMH—parent to brands like Bulgari, Guerlain and Dom Pérignon—were up over 10% this week. The company’s stock has been rising in recent weeks as investors await LVMH’s highly-anticipated merger with American luxury jewelry company Tiffany & Co. Although merger talks had hit a snag—with an ensuing legal dispute, Tiffany last week came back to the negotiating table and accepted LVMH’s discounted $15.8 billion bid to buy the company.
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, meanwhile, saw their fortunes rise $5.7 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively, as Google’s stock also had a strong week, jumping nearly 9%. Both are major shareholders of Google-parent company Alphabet; Page is worth $77.6 billion while Brin is worth $75.4 billion.Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth rose by $7.8 billion this week as shares of his electric vehicle maker were up 10.8% over that period. The world’s fifth richest person, Musk owns a 21% stake in the company and is now worth $94.8 billion.
Bill Gates, the world’s third-richest person, saw his fortune rise $5.4 billion—pushing his net worth up to $118.2 billion as of November 6. Gates, who cofounded Microsoft in 1975, has sold or given away much of his stake in the company—but still owns an estimated 1% of shares, which rose 10.5% this week. Another former Microsoft executive, Steve Ballmer, gained $5.9 billion, with his net worth moving up to $75.5 billion amid the market rally. He owns an estimated 3.5% stake in Microsoft.
The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, October 30 to Friday, November 6.
