Jeff Bezos Surpasses Bill Gates As World’s Richest Person

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $90.7bn, according to Forbes.

Mr Bezos surpasses Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who has a net worth of just over $90 billion. Gates has held the top spot since May 2013.

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Amazon’s share price rose by 2.4 percent on Thursday, with the company’s value exceeding $500bn.

For the first three months of this year Amazon’s sales jumped 23% to $35.7bn. The company expects a rise of 16% to 24% for the quarter to June.

According to Bloomberg, Bezos owns around 80 million shares of Amazon, just under 17 percent of the company.

Over the past two years, as Amazon’s stock has soared, so has Bezos’ fortune. His net worth has grown by $70 billion over the past five years, surging by $45 billion in the last two years alone, making it one of the largest wealth-creation surge in history.

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Mr Bezos becomes only the sixth individual to attain the richest person in the world status.

He started 2017 as the world’s fourth-wealthiest person and has now surpassed Inditex SA founder Amancio Ortega, 81, who ranks third with $82.7 billion and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett, 86, who’s currently ranked fourth on the Bloomberg index with a net worth of $74.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Facebook Inc.’s intraday gains have helped pull co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, 33, within $200 million of Buffett, and ranked fifth in the world.

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