Topline
About $24 billion was added to Jeff Bezos’ net worth on Friday as Amazon shares surged to a record high, fueled by an earnings report that bested Wall Street’s expectations with “strong demand” for AI offerings.
Amazon reported earnings and revenues that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
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Key Facts
Shares of Amazon rose 11.5% to around $248.60 shortly after trading opened Friday, following a 3.2% decline on Thursday before the company’s earnings report was released.
Friday’s rally for Amazon’s stock paces what would be the largest single-day gain since April, when shares jumped nearly 12%, and a further surge would approach Amazon’s 12.1% rally in November 2022.
Amazon on Thursday reported $180.2 billion in revenues and earnings per share of $1.95, topping economists’ forecasts of $177.9 billion and $1.57, according to FactSet.
A surge in earnings growth is largely attributed to the growth of Amazon Web Services, CEO Andy Jassy said, as AWS sales rose 20% annually to $33 billion, in addition to “strong demand” for Amazon’s AI offerings, with a $11 billion AI data center launched this week for Anthropic’s AI models.
Forbes Valuation
Bezos is the world’s third-richest person with a fortune valued at $259.4 billion, according to Forbes’ latest estimates. Bezos, who holds 8% equity in Amazon, had his net worth swell by roughly $24 billion (10.2%) as of Friday morning, after a $6.6 billion slide as shares dropped Thursday.
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