A recent price increase in Amazon stocks has propelled Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott to the position of world's richest woman. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Scott rose to No. 12 on its list with a net worth of more than $68 billion as of Thursday.
Scott overtook L'Oreal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers - who has a net worth of around $66.8 billion. Scott's former husband holds the position as the world's richest man with a current net worth of more than $200 billion. Bezos is also the first man worth more than $200 billion. Since May, Bezos has increased his wealth by more than $57 billion.
The couple's divorce was finalized last year. After the separation, Scott received a 4 percent stake in Bezos' e-commerce company - which was valued at around $36 billion at that time. The value of Scott's stake in the company gradually rose as Amazon saw growth in its business as the world entered a pandemic. With people forced to remain at home, online orders grew to unprecedented volumes - propelling Amazon's earnings and stock price.
Even before her stake's value nearly doubled, Scott had committed to donating much of her wealth to charity. Scott is a member of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' Giving Pledge - an organization that encourages billionaires to donate their wealth to address international issues such as poverty, hunger, health, education and disaster relief. In July, Scott donated around $1.7 billion to organizations including those supporting colleges and universities for minorities.
The past few months have seen a significant reshuffling of Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. The pandemic has dramatically disrupted businesses and economies around the world. Billionaires, whose fortunes were closely tied to oil and gas, fell in rank after incurring big losses as a result of a drop in world crude-oil prices and demand. Meanwhile, those in the technology industry saw their fortunes increase as most of the world shifted online.
