Jeff Bezos beats Bill Gates as world’s richest

The Chief Executive of Amazon.com Inc, Jeff Bezos has unseats his fellow tech billionaire Bill Gates as the richest person in the world briefly on Thursday.

He profited in early trading from the e-commerce company’s meteoric stock rise to reach a fortune of 90.6 billion dollars, Forbes reported. Gates is worth $90.1billion.

Amazon shares jumped 1.6 per cent at the start of trading on Thursday, boosting the net worth of Bezos – the company’s founder and largest shareholder – by 1.4 billion dollars, according to Forbes, which tracks the worlds wealthiest. Bloomberg however estimated Bezos wealth at $92.3billion.

The stock rose ahead of Amazon’s second-quarter earnings report after Wednesday’s market close. But according to Bloomberg, the earnings report of 40 cents per share missed the lowest analyst estimate. The median estimate was for $1.42.

Although the world’s largest online retailer saw its sales jump 22 per cent to 37.2 billion dollars, profit plunged by 70 per cent.

The report again reset the richest list hierarchy, with Bezos dropping to second place, after Amazon stock fell 0.7 percent to $1,046 at 4 p.m. in New York, after climbing as high as $1,083.31 four hours earlier

Bezos, a relative newcomer to the top of Forbes’ list, has benefited from the seemingly boundless expansion of Amazon into new markets.

The former bookseller plans to acquire Whole Foods Market Inc at the same time it is making strides in the fashion business, Hollywood, enterprise computing and general retail from India to Mexico.

Media could not independently verify the wealth of Bezos or Microsoft Corp’s co- founder Gates.

A philanthropist, Gates has given 31.1 billion dollars to charitable causes through 2016 and has a net worth of 90.1 billion dollars, Forbes said.

Bezos, 53, owns about 17 percent of Seattle-based Amazon, which had surged 40 percent this year through Wednesday, helping to add $24.5 billion to his net worth.

He started 2017 as the world’s fourth-wealthiest person and has since surpassed Warren Buffett and Inditex SA founder Amancio Ortega, 81, who ranks third with $82.7 billion.

(NAN)