Jeff Bezos’ fortune has reached a new record: the founder of Amazon.com already owns $ 211 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The technology mogul has benefited from the Pentagon’s decision to terminate the cloud service agreement with rival Microsoft Corp. The move boosted Amazon shares by 4.7%, bringing in another $ 8.4 billion for Bezos.
The last time anyone approached this amount was in January, when Elon Musk briefly touched $ 210 billion. In the first half of the year, the two billionaires competed for first place, but Bezos cemented his position since mid-March after 20% growth of Amazon shares.
Musk himself remains in second place with $ 180.8 billion. In third place is French tycoon Bernard Arnault with $ 168.5 billion.
Bezos, 57, descended from the top of Amazon on July 1 to concentrate on his space dreams. He still owns 11% of the company and remains in it as CEO.
Mackenzie Scott, Bezos’ ex-wife and now the world’s 15th richest man, raised another $ 2.9 billion on Tuesday. Since the beginning of the year, it has donated $ 2.7 billion.
JEDI
On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced it was terminating a $ 10 billion contract for cloud services that was signed with Microsoft in 2019 during the Trump administration. The former president openly had negative feelings for Bezos, as the billionaire owns The Washington Post, which was critical of the head of state.
Pengaton’s move indicates that the contract for the project, called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), will be split between Amazon and Microsoft. Washington believes that only these two companies have the capabilities to meet Pengaton’s needs. However, they will not receive the contract automatically, but will have to re-submit documents and go through the procedure, which is open to other companies.
Amazon welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that the previous procedure “was the result of external influence that has no place in government procurement.” For its part, Microsoft said it understood and respected Pengaton’s decision – in part because of the expected long court battle.
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