Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (pictured above) regained his status as the world’s richest person for the first time in two years on Friday, topping Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Bloomberg reported.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index that tracks the wealth of the richest 500 people is updated after US markets close, so Gates briefly had the upper hand last month after Amazon posted a profit drop, but the company’s shares “pared the decline,” according to the Bloomberg report.
Gates’ rise in the rankings may have been helped, in part, by the Pentagon signing a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with Microsoft instead of Amazon. The October 25 deal prompted a surge in Microsoft shares while Amazon’s stock plummeted by about 2% after the announcement.
Though he only owns roughly 1% of Microsoft shares, but as Business Insider reported earlier this year, “that 1% is estimated to be worth around $7.3 billion.”
The stock market boost shifted Gates’ net worth to $110 billion, while Bezos is at $108.7 billion.
Bezos’s fortune took a hit following his divorce from MacKenzie Bezos, who received a quarter of their Amazon holdings in the split. Bloomberg also notes that Gates could have had a higher net worth, though his philanthropy he has donated donated more than $35 billion since 1994 through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
