Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates no longer the richest person in the world: Update - and now he is again

This morning Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was no longer the richest person in the world. Following a 2.4% rise in the stock price of Amazon, the founder of the company, Jeff Bezos’ worth went up to a whopping $90.7 billion. That surpassed Bill Gates’ worth, which is currently at $90 billion.

With the online retail market booming and Amazon’s cloud business also doing very well in the recent years, it isn’t surprising to see Bezos become the richest person in the world. Bezos owns 17% of all Amazon stocks, which effectively means any sort of rise in the company’s business will lead to Bezos making even more money in the near future. Amazon growth has really helped Bezos over the past years — Bezos was believed to have a net worth of only $4 billion back in 2007 when Bill Gates had a net worth of $56 billion. 10 years later, Bezos has a higher net worth than Gates.

Microsoft’s co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, on the other hand, has been donating a lot of his personal assets through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, although he’s still believed to be the owner of 4% of all Microsoft stocks.

Update:  Unfortunately Jeff Bezos woke up the world’s richest man—and will go to sleep once again in second place.

Amazon’s profits missed expectations, falling to $628M vs the $1.09B investors expected, resulting in its share price tumbling to $1,046, leaving Bezos worth “only” $84 billion and Gates still ahead at around $90 billion.

As they say on the mean streets of Seattle – Easy come is easy go.