Amazon chief Jeff Bezos rakes in $215 million a day

Bolstered by a robust stock market, this year’s richest people in America shattered records on the Forbes 400 list.

The total net worth of the entire list surpassed $2.9 trillion — with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos topping the list with a commanding fortune of more than $100 billion.

“[Jeff Bezos] is the story of the year,” Luisa Kroll, Forbes media assistant managing editor, said on Wednesday during an exclusive interview on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria. “He’s the first person with a fortune of over a billion to be in the ranks. He’s now at a $160 billion.”

Bezos added $78.5 billion to his bottom line this year. After crunching the numbers, Kroll said that it adds up to about $215 million a day. What’s more, the e-commerce behemoth only owns roughly 16 percent of Amazon, according to an August regulatory filing. In September, it became the second U.S. company to reach the $1 trillion milestone, following Apple.

“His dollar figure gain is more than 397 people on the list – only Buffet and Gates are worth more than his gains,” Kroll added.

Amazon’s chief unseated Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is now worth $97 billion. That number could have been higher, Kroll pointed out, but he gave away billions to charity.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle’s Larry Ellison also dominated this year with combined wealth of more than $207 billion.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
AMZN AMAZON.COM INC. 180.38 +0.55 +0.31%
BRK.A BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 634,440.00 +4,830.00 +0.77%
AAPL APPLE INC. 171.48 -1.83 -1.06%
FB n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
ORCL ORACLE CORP. 125.56 +0.28 +0.22%