Mackenzie Scott becomes the richest woman in the world with a net worth of $68 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire index.
Scott is a philanthropist and the ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man. Her new status comes after overtaking Franoise Bettencourt Meyers, an heiress to L’Oreal who controls 33% of the world’s largest cosmetics maker and counts a net worth of $66.8 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The divorce was announced in January 2019 after 25 years of marriage and four children. That April, they reached a settlement that let Scott keep a four percent stake in Amazon valued at $38.3 billion at the time, Bloomberg reported.
Sometimes in July, Scott said she donated $1.7 billion of her wealth in the past year to several different causes including racial equality, LGBTQ rights, public health, and climate change.
In 2019, Scott also signed onto the Giving Pledge initiative, which encourages the richest people in the world to donate a majority of their wealth to charity.
Scott is the richest woman on Bloomberg’s list and the 12th wealthiest person, behind well-known tech moguls including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
The 16 richest Americans in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes Billionaires List are collectively worth more than $1 trillion.
While tech heavyweights populate the top ranks of the lists, they appear alongside other familiar figures like members of the powerful Koch and Walton familie