Bill Gates is now world’s richest man; beats Amazon’s Jeff Bezos again for top spot

Bill Gates’ fortunes stand at $110 billion as of 18 November 2019 while Jeff Bezos trails at $109 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is now the world’s richest man after ousting Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for the top spot again. Bill Gates’ fortunes stand at $110 billion as of 18 November 2019 while Jeff Bezos trails at $109 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Since 2008, Bill Gates has been outshined many times by centi-billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, investor and Gates’s best friend Warren Buffett and Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim. While a considerable amount of Bill Gates’ fortunes is deployed towards Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the tech icon and philanthropist still owns a huge amount of Microsoft stocks. A recent windfall in Bill Gates’ net worth can be attributed to Microsoft winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract which boosted the company’s stock price, Bloomberg said.

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, along with Louis Vuitton-fame Bernard Arnault, are the only three people on the planet with wealth over $100 billion, making them the most elite of the elite. The first time Bill Gates became the richest person in the world was in 1995, when he had amassed a fortune of $12.9 billion.

However, the founder of e-commerce behemoth Amazon has taken two hits to his net worth in recent months. While Jeff Bezos lost billions after Amazon’s underperformance in the third quarter, he also lost around $35 billion to his now ex-wife, Mackenzie Bezos after divorce. 

Meanwhile, the Microsoft founder said that India has the potential for very rapid economic growth over the coming decade and the country will lift people out of poverty and allow the government to invest in health and education priorities in an exciting way, PTI quoted the billionaire philanthropist as saying. He also lauded India’s Aadhaar identity system and the country’s performance in the financial services and pharma sectors.