GameStop’s rise made its 3 largest shareholders billion overnight

Call them Reddit Rich.

The parabolic increase in GameStop’s shares over the past two weeks, driven in part by the Reddit Wallstreetbets crowd, created more than $ 2 billion in personal wealth for the company’s three largest individual shareholders. While massive gains for shareholders created in such a short time may give new meaning to the notion of instant wealth in the digital age.

The primary beneficiary of GameStop’s rise is Ryan Cohen, the co-founder of Chewy who made an investment in GameStop last year in an effort to help the company accelerate its online advance. Cohen started buying GameStop shares in August and increased his position in December. He invested a total of $ 76 million for an approximately 13% stake in the company.

At the market’s close on Tuesday, Cohen’s 13% stake was worth more than $ 1.3 billion. Therefore, in the past two weeks, Cohen’s net worth has increased by an average of $ 90 million per day, or nearly $ 4 million per hour. Cohen was not immediately available for comment.

GameStop’s other big winner is Donald Foss, the 76-year-old founder and former CEO of Credit Acceptance Corp., a subprime auto loan company. Foss, who lives in Michigan, bought 5% of GameStop in February for about $ 12 million. Its stake is now worth more than $ 500 million, bringing its total net worth to almost $ 2 billion, according to Forbes. Foss could not be reached for comment.

GameStop CEO George Sherman saw his 3.4% stake in the company jump to about $ 350 million.

So far, none of the three major shareholders appears to have sold shares. Several board members reduced their holdings between 13 and 15 January, when stocks started to rise. These sales may have been part of pre-booked sales programs.

GameStop continued its rise on Wednesday. It more than doubled and hit a new 52-week high of $ 354.83 before cutting its earnings.