16 July 2018•Update: 17 July 2018
By Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ wealth surpassed $150 billion on Monday as the company shares hit a new high hours before its much-anticipated Prime Day.
The world's richest person, Bezos' net worth increased $1.2 billion, or 0.8 percent, to $150.2 billion around noon EST (1600GMT), according to Forbes' The World's Billionaires Real Time Ranking.
Bezos owns around 17 percent of Amazon shares, which gained 1 percent to $1,831 around that time.
The market capitalization of Amazon also rose to $888 billion making it the world's second most valuable company behind only Apple which is at $940 billion.
Amazon's much-anticipated Prime Day will begin Monday at 3 p.m. EST and last 36 hours until 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Rivaling Black Friday that kicks off the unofficial start of the Christmas holiday season, Amazon offers its Prime members deals and discounts on millions of goods through its website.
Amazon sold $2.4 billion worth of goods during Prime Day last year that lasted 30 hours.
Sales during Prime Day in 2017 rose 60 percent compared to the previous year, while the number of Prime subscribers increased 50 percent year-over-year, according to the e-commerce giant.
Amazon revealed the number of its Prime users for first time in the company’s history in April, saying it climbed above 100 million worldwide.
Prime Day will take place in 17 countries.
