Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has regained his position as the third richest person in the world following the increase in Amazon’s stock price and a significant change in the company’s retail business strategy.
Amazon’s stock price rose by 2.4% to above $244 following the company’s announcement that it will close all its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores.
However, Amazon will focus on its online same-day delivery service and its Whole Foods Market business, which will see the company open over 100 new stores in the coming years. Some of the closed Amazon Go and Fresh stores will be converted to Whole Foods stores.
The increase has resulted in Bezos’ personal fortune increasing by $4.8 billion to $254 billion, as per the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
This has allowed him to surpass Google founder Sergey Brin, who is currently ranked second with a net worth of $253.1 billion. Larry Page is still in the second position with a net worth of $274.3 billion, while Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is at the top position despite his net worth falling by $768.9 billion.
The shift in the positions of the top three comes at a time when the tech world is experiencing changes. This week alone, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg surpassed Oracle founder Larry Ellison to become the fifth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $230.1 billion.
However, the change in Amazon’s strategy has also been accompanied by changes within the company. The company on Wednesday started notifying its 16,000 corporate employees that their jobs have been eliminated.
In a company-wide email, Amazon Chief People Officer Beth Galetti explained that the move aims to eliminate layers and reduce bureaucracy, although the teams that were affected were not mentioned.