Jeff Bezos, World’s Richest Man. For Less Than 24 Hours

As Amazon stock hit an all-time high, its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth climbed to $US92.3 billion on Thursday. The long-standing world’s richest man Bill Gates has a net worth of $US90.8 billion. Bezos was the first person in 7 years to knock Gates off the top position, albeit momentarily.

Amazon stock was trading at a record high of $US1,083.31 on Thursday noon. However, it dropped within a few hours, falling nearly 1% to $US1,046 and pushing Bezos back into second place in Forbes’ tracking of wealth.

Bezos owns about 80 million shares which at its peak was valued at $US87 billion. He also own The Washington Post.

Although Bezos has been a billionaire for over two decades, his wealth skyrocketed over the last 2 years as Amazon’s stock soared exponentially within the same time frame in anticipation of its second quarter earnings, reaching $US1,083 a share at its peak on Thursday.

Forbes stated that another factor that contributed to this brief overtaking is Gates having recently donated billions of dollars to philanthropic causes.