MacKenzie Scott has become the world’s richest woman
MacKenzie Scott philanthropist, author and ex-wife of Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos is now the wealthiest woman in the world. Scotts net worth is now $68 billion, propelling her past LOreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, according to Bloombergs Billionaire index. Scott received a quarter of Bezos Amazon shares in the couples divorce settlement in 2019. That equated to a 4% stake that was worth more than $35 billion at the time. She is now the 12th wealthiest person in the world. In July, Scott announced that she had already donated nearly $1.7 billion to 116 organizations that included four historically Black colleges and universities. She described the organizations as focusing on one of nine areas of need ranging from racial equity to climate change. Last year, Scott also signed onto the Giving Pledge initiative, founded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. The initiative encourages the worlds richest people to dedicate a majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Bezos, the worlds richest man, hasnt signed the pledge, according to a list of signatories. Amazons stock jumped roughly 28% over the last three months, and is up more than 90% so far this year, according to data from Refinitiv. The soar in shares increased the wealth of Bezos to over $200 billion. Scotts bump up in wealth follows a surge in tech stock gains, which has led to other billionaire ranking shake ups at the top. Earlier this week, Elon Musk surpassed Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest person in the world. Tesla saw a 12% stock gain after Teslas 5-1 stock split on Monday.