Amazon's founder briefly tops Bill Gates as world's richest man

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday became the world's

richest person, as a jump in the share price of the US tech giant

enabled him to overtake Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a new estimate

showed.

Forbes magazine said its real-time tracking

of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of 90.5 billion US

dollars, ahead Gate's 90 billion dollars net worth Thursday.

A few hours later, though, Bezos had slipped back to second place as Amazon shares dipped slightly.

Bezos owns around 17 percent of the equity of Amazon,

which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer

to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computer

hardware and artificial intelligence.

The company recently announced plans to acquire US grocer Whole Foods, which could help Amazon expand in that sector.

Amazon

shares were up 1.7 percent at 1,070.72 dollars and have risen some 24

percent over the past four months, adding some 17 billion dollars to the

net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.

According to

Forbes, Gates has been the richest person in the magazine's annual

rankings in March for the past four years and for 18 of the past 22

years. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to

Among the billionaires gaining ground is

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has an estimated worth of some

71.3 billion dollars according to the real-time Forbes estimate.

Bezos Vs. Trump

While most of Bezos's wealth is in Amazon, he also owns the private space firm Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper.

Forbes

pointed out that Gates could have been considerably wealthier, if not

having given away more than 30 billion dollars to philanthropic causes

over the years.

Bezos has given an estimated 100

million dollars, but recently asked users on Twitter for ideas for

charitable donations which could have an impact on the world.

The

billionaire notably opposed Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential

campaign, but after the election appeared to give the new president a

boost by announcing Amazon would add 100,000 new US jobs over 18 months.

Trump

however has not spared Bezos's ventures from criticism, apparently

renewing claims that he purchased the newspaper to divert attention from

regulators away from Amazon.

"So many stories about me in the @washingtonpost are Fake News," Trump tweeted this week.

"Is

Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against

Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?"

Bezos

appeared intent on spending more time in the US capital, purchasing

what is likely the city's largest private residence for 23 million

dollars.

Under Bezos's ownership, the Washington Post

reported it was profitable in 2016, after making a series of

investments in new technology and personnel.

With

Amazon, Bezos is known for taking a long view. The company lost money

for many years and still delivers thinner profits than many of its

peers, plowing money into new investments.