Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is again the richest person in history with a net worth of $105.1bn, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The record was previously held by co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, who now takes second place with $93.3bn.
Data: Bloomberg
The majority of Bezos’ wealth derives from the 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock he owns. Yesterday, Amazon’s stock performance climbed 1.4%, adding $1.4bn to his net worth.
Amazon shares soared 56% in 2017 and after just nine days of 2018 they are already up almost 7%. The start of the Christmas shopping season last November also saw a vast improvement in Amazon’s stock performance, sending Bezos’ net worth over the $100bn mark for the first time.
Other sources of income are from his holdings in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, a space exploration business aiming to take tourists to space.
According to Bloomberg’s analysis of publicly disclosed donations, however, Bill Gates would be worth far more than the Amazon chief if not for his charitable contributions.
The analysis shows that Gates has given away 700 million Microsoft shares, worth $61.8bn today adjusted for inflation, as well as $2.9bn in cash, which would take his net worth to over $150bn.
Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wrote a $279m check to University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, one of the Foundation’s largest donations ever.
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