Jeff Bezos reclaims world’s richest man title, few hours after losing to Bill Gates

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, has reclaimed the World’s Richest Man title few hours after losing the spot to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. 

Bezos who ended Gates’ 24-year run as world’s richest man in 2018 and became the first man on earth with a net worth of $160 billion, lost the spot on Thursday October 24, after Amazon’s lacklustre Q3 results resulted in him losing nearly $7 billion in stock value. Amazon shares fell 7 per cent in after-hours trading. 

He returned to the top position at the end of Friday’s markets. His shares fell by just 1% to $1,760.78, putting his net worth at $109.9 billion. Bill Gates is currently worth $105.8 billion.

Bezos’ brief slip on Thursday wasn’t entirely due to his Amazon shares falling as he would never have lost the No. 1 spot if he and ex wife, MacKenzie Bezos hadn’t divorced.

49-year-old MacKenzie received a quarter of their Amazon holdings in July. With a net worth of $32.7 billion, she is among the top 20 wealthiest people in the world.