Jeff Bezos added US$13bil to his net worth on July 20, the largest single-day jump for an individual since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was created in 2012.

Amazon.com Inc shares surged 7.9%, the most since December 2018 on rising optimism about web shopping trends, and are now up 73% this year.

Bezos, Amazon’s 56-year-old founder and the world’s richest person, has seen his fortune swell US$74bil in 2020 to US$189.3bil , despite the US entering its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He’s now personally worth more than the market valuation of giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp, Nike Inc and McDonald’s Corp.

Mackenzie Bezos, his ex-wife, gained US$4.6bil Monday and is now the 13th-richest person in the world.

Other tech titans are also enjoying a surge driven partly by people forced to stay at home and helped by the boost given to markets by unprecedented stimulus efforts by governments and central bankers.

Facebook Inc chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has added almost US$15bil to his net worth so far this year, even as the company deals with brands boycotting ads on the social network.

 - Bloomberg