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FinanceBillionaires

Jeff Bezos Pushes Warren Buffett Off the Billionaire’s Podium

Lucinda Shen
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Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
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September 15, 2016, 11:19 AM ET
Amazon Unveils Its First Smartphone
Photograph by David Ryder — Getty Images

Jeff Bezos is now the world’s third richest man behind Bill Gates and Amancio Ortega—relegating investing legend Warren Buffett to fourth place.

Amazon CEO Bezos is estimated to be worth $66.3 billion as of Wednesday’s market close—beating out Berkshire Hathaway’s top dog by about $800 million, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

Over the past two days, Buffett has shed $1.75 billion from his net worth as Wells Fargo’s phony accounts scandal worsened. While Buffett owns a relatively small sliver of the bank, his company, Berkshire Hathaway, is Wells Fargo’s largest shareholder—and Berkshire stock makes up the majority of Buffett’s wealth. As Wells Fargo’s stock slid, so did Berkshire Hathaway—and Buffett’s net worth.

Shares of Berkshire have fallen 2.7% since the news that Wells Fargo had created 2 million fake accounts first broke. The bank was initially slapped with a $185 million fine and asked to repay consumers who had been affected. But the Senate Banking Committee later called the bank’s CEO John Stumpf alongside other executives to testify before the panel next Tuesday in relation to the scandal.

 

Meanwhile, the Amazon CEO has shed $881 million in the past two days, though his wealth has also shot up since the start of 2016 as investors applauded his company. The internet giant proved that its next growth driver, web services, was growing faster than expected, during its most profitable quarter yet earlier this year.

Amazon’s stock has risen 12.6% year-to-date, pushing the CEO’s wealth up by $6.7 billion.

Despite losses this week, Buffett has also grown his wealth this year by $3.2 billion while Berkshire’s stock has risen 10.5% in the same period.

Both those figures pale in comparison to how much Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has risen in the past nine months: $10.1 billion. Zuckerberg is the world’s fifth richest, with $55.9 billion.

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Lucinda Shen
By Lucinda Shen
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