A surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares Thursday morning ahead of the online retailer’s earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world’s wealthiest person.
Shares of the online retailer fell 0.7 percent to $1,046 at 4 pm at New York, after rising as high as $1,083.31 four hours before, which gave Bezos a net worth of $92.3 billion. Gates had a net worth of $90.8 billion as of the Wednesday close.
Bezos stays ranked second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, behind the Microsoft Corp. co-founder. Gates, 61, has held the top spot since May 2013.
Amazon’s earnings per share of 40 cents missed the analyst estimate that is lowest. The median estimate was for $1.42.
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Bezos, 53, owns about 17 percent of Seattle-based Amazon, which had surged 40 percent this year through Wednesday, helping to add $24.5 billion to his net worth. He started 2017 as the world’s fourth-wealthiest individual and has since surpassed Warren Buffett and Inditex SA founder Amancio Ortega, 81, who ranks third with $82.7 billion.
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