Microsoft’s boss, Bill Gates has reclaimed his World Richest person title from the Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, who briefly overtook him yesterday.
As at yesterday, a real-time billionaires’ index compiled by Forbes shows how Bezos overtook Bill Gates on Thursday with a fortune topping $90 billion for the first time ever.
“When markets opened on Thursday, Bezos had a net worth of $90.6 billion, putting him $500 million ahead of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Amazon stock opened up 1.6% on Thursday, adding $1.4 billion to Bezos’ net worth. That was enough to put him ahead of Gates, who was last surpassed on Forbes’ real-time rankings for just two days nearly a year ago by Spanish retail giant Amancio Ortega.” Forbes reports.
But an updated Forbes report states that as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern, Jeff Bezos had dropped below Bill Gates on Forbes’ Real-Time Ranking, and Gates ended the day as the world’s richest person.
It would be recalled that the surge in Amazon.com shares yesterday morning in advance of the online retailer’s earnings report was what propelled Bezos past Bill Gates.
Shares of the online retailer rose 1.3 percent to $1,065.92 at 10:10 a.m. in New York, giving Bezos a net worth of $90.9 billion, versus $90.7 billion for Gates.
Meanwhile, Bezos according to Forbes would be nowhere close to being the world’s wealthiest person had Gates not given so much of his fortune to philanthropy.
“Gates, who created the Giving Pledge with Buffett to encourage billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes, had given away $31.1 billion over the course of his lifetime through end of 2016. ”
