Jeff Bezos Reclaims World’s Richest Man Tag After Losing to Bill Gates for Hours

The founder of Amazon, US multinational technology company, Jeff Bezos has reclaimed his spot as the world’s richest man after losing the position for a few hours to Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder.

According to Forbes, Gates had temporarily displaced Bezos, who is also the owner of Washington Post, on Thursday, after Amazon’s shares dropped by seven percent after-hours trading — a development that saw its founder’s net worth reduced to $103.9 billion.

However, Bezos returned to the top position at the end of Friday’s markets, after his shares fell by just 1 per cent  to $1,760.78, putting his net worth at $109.9 billion — and back at number one.

Gates is currently worth $105.8 billion.

The Microsoft founder has held the position for most of the times over the last two decades.

He was however, displaced in 2018 by Bezos who was not only the richest man then but also the first man on earth to attain a net worth of $160 billion.

Bezos’s inconsistencies in ranking is widely attributed to the divorce of Mackenzie, his ex-wife. The divorce is said to have taken a huge toll on his net worth.

MacKenzie presently ranks among the top richest in the world with a net worth of $32.7 billion.

“It’s possible Bezos could lose the crown once more as Amazon continues to invest heavily in infrastructure to support one-day shipping—a delivery time that he hopes will become standard for all Amazon Prime members,” said Forbes.

The Amazon CEO is said to have first joined The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1998.