Move over Bill Gates. Someone finally managed to topple the Microsoft founder from his number one spot on the world’s richest list; a spot that he has occupied since 2013.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of online retail giant Amazon, briefly became the world’s richest man last Thursday after his net worth surged by an astounding $2.5 billion. Before the company released its earnings report, Amazon shares rose to an intraday high of $1,083.31 which translates to Bezos’ net worth escalating to an unprecedented $92.3 billion, according to Bloomberg. This amount overtook Bill Gates’ net worth, computed to be $90.8 billion as of Wednesday.
However, Amazon was not able to sustain Thursday morning’s rally. By the end of the day, its shares fell by 0.7 percent, eventually settling to $1,046 per share, as reported by the Seattle Times. Thus, Bezos has settled to the number two spot on the list while Gates reclaimed the number one spot that he has held since May of 2013.
RT technology: Jeff Bezos’s time as the world’s richest person was short-lived today https://t.co/fOQzb0AK68 pic.twitter.com/ejTEVtNoF9
— Elaine Heng (@ejyheng) July 27, 2017
The price of Amazon’s shares has been steadily rising in recent years, eventually moving past the $1,000 per share mark. Jeff Bezos, who is also the CEO and Chairman of the Seattle-based behemoth, owns a substantial 17 percent of Amazon and has greatly benefited from the meteoric rise of its shares.
Amazon shares rose by a whopping 40 percent since the start of 2017, adding an enormous $24.5 billion to Bezo’s fortune. The increase helped him dislodge famed investor Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway from the number two spot.
Amazon prime – Jeff Bezos has overtaken Bill Gates as the world’s richest man 💰💰💰
https://t.co/i2S4kubrRZ pic.twitter.com/v6sCUDfART— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 27, 2017
According to Independent, Amazon’s market performance was buoyed by its media streaming services, the popular home digital assistant Alexa, as well as its Prime shopping club. However, investors are still vigilant about the company’s long-term prospects as they keep a close watch on the performance of Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing business, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of their revenue. In fact, Thursday’s correction already reflects the company’s failure to meet estimates and the projected possibility of a third quarter operating loss.
[Featured Image by Steve Jurvetson/Flickr]