On October 24th 2019, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos temporarily lost the title of being the world’s richest person. This happened after Amazon announced its shares fell by 7 % in after hours trading. This resulted in Bezos, who owns a 12 % stake in the Company, losing almost $ 7 billion in a few hours. However, Bezos managed to claim back the title within 24 hours of losing it.
After the loss, Bezos was replaced by Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person in the world. Gates previously held the title for 24 years until 2018, when he was replaced by Bezos.
Even though Amazon’s shares fell further on Friday, the fall was not as steep as Thursday’s. On Friday, Amazon’s share fell by 1 %. This put Bezos’ net worth at $ 109.9 billion and resulted in him surpassing Gates’ net worth. Bill Gates is, once again, the world’s second richest person, behind Bezos by $ 4.1 billion. Gates has a net worth of $ 105.8 billion.
Jeff Bezos, whose net worth heavily relies on Amazon’s performance, has been at the top of the world’s richest people list since 2018. Jeff Bezos ended Bill Gates’ 24 year old run as the world’s richest man in 2018 with his net worth of $ 160 billion. However, Bezos lost a significant amount during his divorce proceedings with wife Mackenzie Bezos. Jeff Bezos agreed to give Mackenzie Bezos a 4 % stake in Amazon, which is worth more than $ 37 billion. The divorcee also made Mackenzie Bezos the third richest woman in the world.
However, it is speculated Jeff Bezos may lose the spot as the world’s richest person soon as Amazon is investing heavily in infrastructure supporting one day shipping, on which the Company reportedly spent almost $ 800 million.