Jeff Bezos’ Wealth Soars $24 Billion as Amazon Shares Hit Record High

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw his fortune jump by nearly $24 billion on Friday after the company’s stock surged to an all-time high, fueled by stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings and soaring demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and cloud services.

Amazon shares leapt 11.5% to $248.60 at Friday’s open, one of their biggest one-day gains since April, when the stock rose about 12%. The rally erased Thursday’s 3.2% drop, which came ahead of the earnings announcement.

The e-commerce and cloud giant reported $180.2 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.95 per share, topping Wall Street estimates of $177.9 billion in revenue and $1.57 per share, according to data from FactSet cited by Forbes.

Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) division was a key growth engine, with sales rising 20% year-on-year to $33 billion, driven by global demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

CEO Andy Jassy credited the strong performance to AWS expansion and surging demand for AI-related services, noting the company’s launch this week of an $11 billion data center to support AI models developed by Anthropic, one of Amazon’s key AI partners.

Following the stock rally, Bezos, who still owns about 8% of Amazon’s shares, saw his net worth rise to $259.4 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires. The jump keeps him the third-richest person in the world, behind Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.

The gain came after a $6.6 billion dip in his wealth on Thursday, when Amazon’s stock briefly declined ahead of earnings.

Amazon’s share price has now climbed 53% from its April low of $161.38, and is up more than 12% year-to-date, reflecting renewed investor confidence in the company’s strategic direction and AI initiatives.

The company’s results highlight a broader shift among tech giants, including Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft, toward massive investment in AI infrastructure and cloud computing capacity to meet growing global demand.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced plans to lay off 14,000 corporate employees as part of a wider effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency. The company clarified that the restructuring was not driven by financial pressure or AI automation, at least not yet.

Despite the shake-up, analysts at Pivotal Research praised Amazon’s fundamentals, saying the company retains a “deep defensive moat” around its core businesses, supported by multiple avenues for organic growth and strong profit margins in its cloud division.

Beyond Amazon, Bezos has continued to invest heavily in space exploration through his company Blue Origin, reaffirming his vision that “millions of people will live and work in space by 2045.”

For now, though, the billionaire’s biggest rocket remains Amazon’s share price, and the accelerating rise of artificial intelligence seems to be its most powerful fuel.