Tim Cook Joins the Billionaire Club as Apple Valuation Touches Historic High

Apple CEO Tim Cook's net worth has crossed the $1 billion (roughly Rs.7,500 crores) mark, making him part of the elite billionaire club - a rare feat for a non-founder CEO, as per an analysis. Apple's share price rose almost 5 percent last week, bringing the company close to a historic $2 trillion (roughly Rs.149 lakh crores) in valuation. Under Cook, Apple recently became the world's most valued publicly traded company, surpassing state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco.

As per the analysis by Bloomberg, Tim Cook's net worth eclipsed $1 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people, updated at the close of every trading day in New York. CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, tops the list at $186 billion (roughly Rs.14 lakh crores), followed by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at $121 billion (roughly Rs.9 lakh crores), and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg at $99 billion (roughly Rs. 7 lakh crores). Cook's net worth, as calculated by the Index, is based on an analysis of regulatory filings and applying the market performance of a typical wealthy investor to his proceeds from share sales, as per the analysis.

When Apple founder Steve Jobs died, the company was valued at about $350 billion (roughly Rs. 26 lakh crores), as per a report. But now, under Cook, Apple has become the world's most valuable publicly traded company, surpassing state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. After Apple bought back $16 billion (roughly Rs.1 lakh crores) worth of shares in the June quarter, it had 4,275,634,000 outstanding shares, as of July 17, according to the filing.

In a 2015 interview, Cook had stated that he plans to give most of his fortune away, and has already gifted millions of dollars-worth of Apple shares, as per the report. If Cook has made other undisclosed charitable gifts, his wealth could be lower than the current calculations.

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