Jeff Bezos boosts fortune by $12 billion in a day on Amazon surge

By Tom Metcalf and Jack Witzig

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, got a lot richer Thursday.

The Amazon.com Inc. founder added $12 billion to his fortune as the company’s shares surged 6.3 per cent to $1,614 in extended trading at 4:33 p.m. in New York -- on top of a 4 per cent gain during the regular session -- after the retailer reported results that beat Wall Street estimates. That lifted Bezos’s net worth to to $134 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

It has been a turbulent week for the richest Americans in tech. On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc. spooked investors after first-quarter results sparked concern that the Google parent plans to go on a spending binge, punishing shares of Amazon, Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. Bezos lost $4.6 billion that day, and Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin each lost $2 billion.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune dropped $2.5 billion on Tuesday, got a reprieve Thursday as his wealth increased by $5.8 billion, a day after the social network posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter. He leapfrogged Spain’s Amancio Ortega to No. 5 in the global wealth ranking.