Amazon founder eclipses record held by Bill Gates to become richest person ever

January 10, 2018
Jeff Bezos speaks at an event in Washington DC.

Jeff Bezos,The founder of online retail giant Amazon, has climbed above Microsoft founder Bill Gates to be named as the richest man on earth according to Bloomberg.

Mr Bezos worth reached over $NZ146 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index yesterday, due to the fact that Amazon.com Inc. shares added to 12-month gains which have seen the comapny's market value rise by almost 57 per cent.

The latest jump has led Bloomberg to name Mr Bezo as the wealthiest man in the history of the publication's records, with the Amazon founder leaping ahead of the previous high attained by Bill Gates in 1999.

In 1999 Bloomberg reported Mr Gates amassed a fortune of around $NZ130 billion, a figure which they say would be close to $NZ150 billion today if he hadn't given much of his fortune away to various charities setup in his name.

As well as Amazon, Mr Bezos also controls space exploration business Blue Origin and newspaper the Washington Post.

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