There May Soon Be A “New Richest Man In The World” For The First Time In 2 Years

It seems Amazon CEO and current world richest man, Jeff Bezos, may soon lose his place as the first name of the wealth list.

No thanks to Amazon stocks doing a nosedive in after-hours trading following a miss on profit for its third-quarter results, Bezos now has his place at the top of the world’s rich list threatened. And anyone can guess who’s waiting in the flanks to take over: the Bill Gates.

Amazon’s pre-market share price currently stands at USD 1,671.56 per share. Bezos owns 57,657,362 Amazon shares, according to the most recent SEC filing. So, if each share is worth $1,671.56 according to pre-market trading on Friday, that would give Bezos’s Amazon stock a value of around USD 96 Bn.

But at the close of trading today, the stocks may not be that valuable. When the Bloomberg Billionaires Index is updated at the close of trading in New York on Friday, the Amazon founder may not be the person at the top.

Before Amazon stocks took a serious tumble on Thursday, Bezos’s stock had been valued at around USD 102 Bn. This would suggest that Bezos’s overall net worth (which stood at USD 111 Bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Thursday ) has already dipped by around USD 6 Bn, to USD 105 Bn.

And it could even dip further if Amazon stocks continue in its downward trajectory throughout Friday’s trading.

Actually, if Amazon stocks continue to tumble up till the close of trading on Friday, Bezos is likely to be usurped by Bill Gates (who is currently worth USD 107 Bn according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index) as the world’s richest man provided nothing too dramatic happens to Microsoft’s share price.

If things turn out that way, it would be the first time since in over two years that Bezos is on any position but No.1 on the world’s rich list.