After months of reaching new heights, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ fortune took a hit on Thursday. The billionaire’s net worth dropped $3.2 billion after hours, after Amazon missed its expected earnings for the third quarter. As of 4:45 p.m. Eastern, Bezos was worth $67.5 billion, maintaining his position as America’s second richest person ahead of investor Warren Buffett and behind No. 1 Bill Gates.
In its third quarter earnings report, Amazon’s net income for the three months ending on Sept. 30 was 52 cents per share, well below analysts’ expectation of 78 cents per share. The news led Amazon stock to initially drop 6% after hours, shaving billions off Bezos’ net worth. As of 4:45 p.m. Eastern, the stock was down nearly 5% from its $818 per share closing price to $782.10.
Leading into Thursday, Bezos was having a record-setting year. In October, he ranked as the second richest person in the United States on The 2016 Forbes 400 list, unseating investor Warren Buffett, who had been No. 2 on The Forbes 400 for the prior 15 years. Bezos added $20 billion to his fortune in the year between the 2015 and 2016 Forbes 400, making him the biggest gainer on this year’s list.
Bezos first briefly passed Buffett on FORBES’ Real-Time Billionaire Rankings on July 22 due to strong Amazon stock performance–and Buffett’s annual philanthropic summer gift of $2.9 billion a week earlier. A week later, Bezos again surpassed Buffett’s net worth, following Amazon’s strong second quarter earnings report; Bezos’ fortune reached a new high of $66.5 billion. While the two billionaires’ net worths remained close for a time, Bezos surged ahead in September and ended yesterday a full $6 billion ahead of Buffett. Now that lead has dropped more than half to just $2.6 billion.
Bezos first appeared on The Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.6 billion one year after Amazon’s IPO in 1997. Amazon stock has increased more than 54,000% since then, propelling Bezos to the top ranks of the world’s billionaires.
