Amazon's Jeff Bezos leaves behind Bill Gates to become richest person in world

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has left behind Bill Gates to become world's richest person, as with a jump in the share price of the US tech giant he overtook Microsoft founder Bill Gates, acccording to Forbes magazine.

According to the magazine, real-time tracking of personal fortunes has showed Bezos with a net worth of $90.5 billion, which is ahead of $90 billion for Gates.

Almost 17 per cent of the equity of Amazon is owned by Bezos. From its original mission, Amazon has been expanding as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm  in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.

Recently there was an announcement by Amazon according to which they are planning to acquire US grocer Whole Foods. This could help expansion of Amazon in that sector.

Amazon shares were up 1.7 per cent at $1,070.72 and have risen some 24 per cent over the past four months, adding some $17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.

In the magazine's annual rankings in march for the past four years, Gates has been the richest person and 18 of the past 22 years, according to Forbes. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to 2013.