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THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST
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he world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, had a very good week. The Amazon CEO got $10 billion richer, bringing his net worth to $191.5 billion. He’s got an $8.3 billion lead over Tesla CEO Elon Musk (net worth: $183.2 billion), who briefly claimed the top spot this month before falling back to second place. Even better for Bezos? His boost this week comes in part thanks to the departure of Donald Trump, a constant critic of Amazon and the Bezos-owned Washington Post.
President Joe Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday, sending tech stocks soaring on optimism over his administration’s Covid-19 vaccine and stimulus plans. Amazon ended the week up 6.1%, Facebook gained 9.2% and Google parent Alphabet rose 9.5%, beating the S&P and Dow Jones Industrial Average’s weekly gains of 2% and 0.5%, respectively.
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On Inauguration Day, Amazon executive Dave Clark sent a letter to Biden offering Amazon’s resources to help distribute the vaccine. “We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination effort,” he wrote. Clark also took the opportunity to advocate prioritizing vaccinating Amazon’s 800,000 employees, most of whom are essential frontline workers.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (net worth: $100.4 billion) gained $7.9 billion this week, thanks not only to general optimism around the new administration, but also because of Wall Street’s increased confidence in the social media giant. BMO Capital Markets analyst Daniel Salmon upgraded the stock on Tuesday, citing the strength of Facebook’s ecommerce platform and an expectation that it would face fewer hurdles in its ad targeting business moving forward. He set its price target at $325, some 18% higher than where the stock stands now.
Google cofounders Larry Page (net worth: $83 billion) and Sergey Brin (net worth: $80.6 billion) gained $6.6 billion and $6.3 billion, respectively, on the tech stock rally. But it wasn’t all good news for Google this week. The company decided to shut down Loon, its effort to bring high-speed internet to remote parts of the world using balloons. It is also dealing with an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 states, which accuses Google of colluding with Facebook to corner the online advertising marketplace. Google requested that the trial be moved to California from Texas, where the suit was filed. If the company gets its wish, it might face a more tech-friendly jury.
European stocks also rose on Biden’s inauguration, fueled by hopes that the new president will repair the relationships strained by the former president. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen went as far as tweeting on Wednesday that “the United States is back.” Bernard Arnault, chair of luxury conglomerate LVMH and the richest man in Europe, got$5.6 billion richer this week.