JANUARY 11, 2018 – Move over Bill Gates. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has now been confirmed the world’s richest man, not just at present, but of all time.
Both Bloomberg and Forbes have put Bezos on top of their billionaire lists. Bloomberg said Bezos’ net worth reached 106 billion U.S. dollars while Forbes put it at 105 billion as of Wednesday.
The previous record was held by Microsoft founder Bill Gates with 100 billion in 1999.
The majority of Bezos’ net worth comes from the 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock he owns. Shares of Amazon (AMZN) climbed nearly 57 percent in 2017.
The Seattle-based corporation managed to make up 89 percent of online spending among major retailers in the five-week period beginning on Thanksgiving, according to an analysis of transaction data by Earnest Research in New York.
Bill Gates now still sits on the No. 2 post on both of the fortune lists with roughly 92 billion dollars. Some argue that if not for his significant charitable contributions, Gates would still be worth far more than Bezos.
According to Bloomberg, Gates has given away almost 700 million Microsoft shares, worth 61.8 billion dollars at today’s value, as well as 2.9 billion of cash since 1996.
