Please Don T Tell Jeff Bezos What He D Be Worth Today Had He Never Never Gotten Divorced

On the day of their divorce announcement, Jeff Bezos’ net worth was $150 billion. He was the world’s richest person. I know what you’re thinking. What about Elon? As crazy as it sounds considering it was just a few years ago, at the time, Elon Musk was “just” worth $20 billion. That wasn’t enough to make him one of the 100 richest people in the world. Fast forward to the present, and there’s a strong argument that Jeff Bezos is once again the richest person in the world thanks to his $198 billion net worth. By most counts, Elon is still technically richer by $6 billion, with a $204 billion net worth. However, as you may have heard, a judge recently voided $56 billion worth of options awarded to Elon by Tesla’s board back in 2018. If we remove $56 billion from Elon’s fortune right now, it would reduce him to $148 billion. That dropped him to fourth place on the world’s richest list. Elon can (and will) appeal that judgment, which makes removing the $56 billion difficult to justify at this very moment. So, for now, he’s still richer on a technicality. BUT! None of these technicalities and legal appeals would matter had Jeff Bezos simply never gotten divorced!

What Could Have Been

Ok, enough beating around the bush. What would Jeff Bezos be worth today had he never divorced MacKenzie?

$288 billion

Had he never gotten divorced, today, Jeff Bezos would be $83 billion richer than Elon Musk (assuming we have not removed the $56 billion). He would be $106 billion richer than Bernard Arnault. He would be $118 billion richer than Mark Zuckerberg. He would be $143 billion richer than Bill Gates. Would that have made Jeff Bezos the richest person in modern history? Nope. For over 80 years, John D. Rockefeller was the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller’s inflation-adjusted net worth was equal to $340 billion in today’s dollars. That record was broken on November 4, 2021, when Elon Musk’s actual, non-inflation-adjusted, true net worth briefly broke just above $340 billion.