Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

I would like to contribute

stated on September 14, 2022 in a photo on Facebook:

If Jeff Bezos’ net worth reaches $1 trillion, “he could literally end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion and he will still have $91.5 billion left.”

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a 2019 news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP)

By Sara Swann September 16, 2022

Claim that Jeff Bezos’ fortune could make everyone a billionaire doesn’t add up

If Your Time is short

A Facebook post used bad math to claim that if Jeff Bezos’ net worth was evenly distributed, everyone would receive $1 billion and Bezos would still have $91.5 billion left for himself.
If Bezos’ fortune of $149.5 billion was shared among the world’s population, each person would actually get about $19.

See the sources for this fact-check

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s wealthiest people. So wealthy that some social media users claim he could make everyone else a billionaire and still rank among the richest individuals.

If Bezos’ net worth reached $1 trillion, a photo shared Sept. 14 on Facebook claimed, "he could literally end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion and he will still have $91.5 billion left."

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Although sharing is caring, this claim doesn’t calculate Bezos’ wealth distribution correctly. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen this kind of math about Bezos’ wealth. Let’s take a look at these latest numbers.

First, the Facebook post assumes Bezos’ wealth amounts to $1 trillion. This is not accurate. As of Sept. 15, Bezos’ net worth was about $149.5 billion, according to Forbes — about $850.5 billion away from trillionaire status.

A 2020 analysis conducted by Comparisun, a content platform serving small- and medium-sized businesses, predicted Bezos would become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026. The photo in the Facebook post shows a New York Post tweet referring to this prediction.

The claim also assumes there are 7.5 billion people in the world, but the U.S. Census’ world population clock puts the number closer to 7.9 billion as of Sept. 15.

Even if Bezos was worth $1 trillion, the claim’s math still doesn’t add up.

Instagram posts

stated on March 21, 2024 in an Instagram post

Video shows legislators “dancing in Congress” while the border is “overrun.”

In order for the world’s 7.9 billion people to each receive $1 billion and for Bezos to keep $91.5 billion for himself, the tech mogul would need to be worth more than $7.9 quintillion.

$1 billion x 7.9 billion people + $91.5 billion = $7,900,091,500,000,000,000

If the wealth distribution is calculated accurately based on how much money Bezos currently has, every person, including Bezos, would end up with just under $19.

$149.5 billion / 7.9 billion people = $18.92

Our ruling

A Facebook post claimed that if Bezos’ net worth reached $1 trillion, "he could literally end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion and he will still have $91.5 billion left."

This math doesn’t work out. If Bezos shared his wealth of $149.5 billion equally across the globe, each person would receive about $19.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

CORRECTION, Sept. 19, 2022: This fact-check has been updated to fix the numerical version of $7.9 quintillion. The rating is unchanged.