- Co-founder of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates overtook Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. as the world richest person on Friday, reclaiming the top ranking in more than two years for the first time.
- Recently in August, it was predicted that Jeff Bezos might lose his title of World Richest Man. The billionaire founder of Microsoft Inc., Bill Gates has earlier retained the world’s richest person title for around 20 years and maybe again on the verge of reclaiming it.
Co-founder of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates overtook Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. as the world richest person on Friday, reclaiming the top ranking in more than two years for the first time.
Gates may have been helped in part by the surprise decision of the Pentagon announced on October 25 to award Microsoft over Amazon a $10 billion cloud computing contract. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Microsoft’s shares have since risen 4 percent, giving Gates a fortune of $110 billion. Since the announcement, Amazon’s stock is down about 2 percent, putting Bezos ‘ net worth at $108.7 billion.
Gates, 64, had briefly overtaken Bezos, 55, intraday last month after Amazon posted its first two-year drop in profit, but shares of the world’s largest online retailer paved the downturn. After closing US markets, the index, which tracks the wealth of the richest 500 people, is updated every trading day. Bernard Arnault, Europe’s richest person, is third with $102.7 billion.
This year, Microsoft has risen 48 percent, boosting Gates ‘ 1 percent stake in value. The rest of his wealth is derived from his family office, Cascade, selling shares and investing over the years.
If he and MacKenzie Bezos had not split, Bezos would be far wealthier. The pair confirmed their separation in January, receiving a quarter of their Amazon shares in July from MacKenzie, 49. On Friday, her net worth fell to $35 billion. On the other hand, Gates might never have given up the top spot if it wasn’t for his philanthropy. Since 1994, he has donated more than $35 billion to the Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates.
Gates recently shared his thoughts on the wealth tax proposed by some Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, saying he has already paid taxes in excess of $10 billion.
‘ If I had to spend 20 billion dollars, that’s all right, ‘ he said. So ‘ if you say I’m supposed to pay $100 billion, then I’m beginning to do some calculations on what I’ve left. “That’s $10 billion as of today.
Recently in August, it was predicted that Jeff Bezos might lose his title of World Richest Man. The billionaire founder of Microsoft Inc., Bill Gates has earlier retained the world’s richest person title for around 20 years and maybe again on the verge of reclaiming it. Last year, the rising share prices of Amazon propelled Jeff Bezos to the top of the ‘World’s rich’ list.
Earlier also Jeff Bezos piped Bill Gates in 2017 for a short time and then he surpassed Gates finally in 2018 to become the world’s richest person. Net Worth of all the billionaires is largely calculated from their equity interests, either in the pool of other enterprises or in their own company or a mixture of both.
