After shares of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) climbed 4.7 percent on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, saw his net worth increase to $211 billion.
What happened was this: According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos’ fortune increased by $8.44 billion as a result of the Amazon stock surge. It also allowed Bezos to extend his lead over Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), the world’s second-richest person.
The stock of Amazon.com soared after news that the Department of Defense had terminated the $10 billion JEDI cloud contract, which had sparked a court battle between Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).
With a net worth of $181 billion, Musk stays in second place on the list of billionaires. However, due to a drop in Tesla’s stock, his net worth dropped by $4.7 billion on Tuesday.
Also see: The Breakout in Amazon’s Stock Is Real According to Josh Brown,
Why Does It Matter? Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon earlier this week, has more than a 10% interest in the e-commerce behemoth.
Earlier this year, Bezos and Musk were locked in a fierce battle for the top spot on the Bloomberg wealth index. In January of this year, Musk dethroned Bezos as the world’s richest person, and his fortune reached a new high of $210 billion.
After a drop in Tesla’s stock price diminished Musk’s wealth, Bezos reclaimed the title of world’s richest person in February.
Price Changes: In Tuesday’s normal trading session, Amazon.com shares surged about 4.7 percent to $3,675.74, and then rose 0.1 percent to $3,680.00 in the after-hours session.
Read Next: Amazon Is Still the Biggest Cloud Player, But It’s Losing Ground to Rivals
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