With Amazon Shares Hitting An All-Time High, Don't Tell Jeff Bezos What He Would Be Worth Today Had He Never Gotten Divorced…

Amazon stock just hit an all-time high of $238 per share, pushing the company's market cap back into stratospheric territory. And, obviously, that's great news for Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos. Thanks to his massive Amazon holdings, Jeff now has a net worth of $258 billion. That's not quite enough to make him the richest person in the world, but he's still comfortably in the top five.

Perhaps best of all? Amazon is surging without Jeff even having to do any work. He stepped down as CEO in 2021, handing the reins to Andy Jassy. So instead of grinding it out in boardrooms and earnings calls, Jeff gets to watch his fortune swell from the comfort of a yacht or a private jet… or a private jet on its way to a yacht.

And while he's cruising at 40,000 feet (or 40 knots), Jeff gets to focus on his personal passions: space flight and Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos is now laser-focused on Blue Origin, his private aerospace company, and his new life with Sanchez — the surgically-enhanced former Los Angeles weather anchor turned helicopter pilot. The couple tied the knot during a lavish, star-studded wedding weekend in Italy, drawing A-listers from every corner of business and entertainment. He may no longer be the world's richest person — that title now bounces between Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, and a few others — but at $258 billion, Jeff is still in rarefied financial air.

In short, life is good for the 61-year-old tycoon. No regrets!

Well… maybe one regret.

Whenever Amazon stock hits a fresh all-time high, surely Jeff feels a teeny tiny tinge of regret. Even just a passing thought about what could have been — if he had never divorced his first wife, MacKenzie Scott.

Because if Jeff and MacKenzie were still happily married, today would be a very different kind of milestone.

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How Much Would Jeff Bezos Be Worth Today If He Never Got Divorced?

Before Jeff and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019, Jeff owned 80 million shares of Amazon. As part of their divorce settlement, he transferred 19.7 million shares to MacKenzie, instantly making her one of the richest women in the world. That left Jeff with 60.3 million shares.

In June 2022, Amazon executed a 20-for-1 stock split, turning each of those 60.3 million shares into 20 new shares — giving Jeff a post-split total of approximately 1.2 billion shares. Over the last few years, he has sold or donated portions of his stake, and today he owns just under 1 billion shares, either directly or through his investment entities.

At Amazon's all-time high of $238 per share, 1 billion shares are worth right around $238 billion.

Add in his other assets — including Blue Origin, The Washington Post, a very early investment in Google, stakes in companies like Airbnb and Uber, a massive real estate portfolio, and billions in cash from past stock sales — and Jeff's total net worth comes in around $258 billion.

But what could have been…

Had Jeff and MacKenzie Scott never divorced — and had he retained his full 80 million pre-split shares — those shares would have also been multiplied by 20 during the 2022 stock split, giving him a total of 1.6 billion Amazon shares today.

At $238 per share, those shares alone would be worth: $380.8 billion.

And as a reminder, that's not counting his other holdings — Blue Origin, The Washington Post, real estate, private equity bets, and his very early stake in Google. With those assets included, Jeff Bezos' net worth would easily surpass $400 billion.

That would make him the richest person in the world today, topping Elon Musk's current world-leading $386 billion fortune.

Not that he's counting… but somewhere, Jeff Bezos maybe just winced at a stock ticker.