A 1 percent pop in the shares of Amazon.com — the internet company Bezos founded, which accounts for the vast majority of his wealth — was enough to bump him over the wealth of Gates, the philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder, according to a real-time list of billionaires by Forbes.com, which has tallied the fortunes of the uber-rich for decades.
Forbes now estimates the wealth of Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, at about $90.6 billion, compared with $90 billion for Gates.
Bezos would be nowhere close to being the world’s wealthiest person had Bill Gates not given so much of his fortune to philanthropy.
Bill Gates, who created the Giving Pledge with Warren Buffett to encourage billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes, had given away $31.1 billion over the course of his lifetime through end of 2016.
According to a filing with securities regulators in April, Bezos holds nearly 81 million shares of Amazon — almost 17 percent of the company. Forbes also estimates the value of his other investments — including his ownership of The Washington Post and the rocket company Blue Origin — and cash from the sale of securities as part of its wealth calculations. Bezos has said he sells about $1 billion a year worth of Amazon stock to finance Blue Origin.
Gates has been at the top of the Forbes list of billionaires for 18 out of the last 23 years.
Kerry Dolan, an assistant managing editor for Forbes, said the publication also considers extensive assets Gates holds through his Cascade Investments, which has stakes in private equity, real estate and public companies. Forbes does not include his contributions to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in its wealth calculations.
Anyway I wonder if Jeff Bezos sent an Amazon Prime same-day drone delivery to Bill Gates’ doorstep with a note inside the box saying ‘gotcha’.
Tags: amazon.com, Bill Gates, billionaires, Jeff Bezos, Microsoft
