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Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, topples Bill Gates as richest person on Forbes 400

13:05, Thursday, 04 October, 2018
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, topples Bill Gates as richest person on Forbes 400

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' accumulated riches make him the wealthiest person on the planet, ending Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' 24-rear run atop Forbes' annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans.

The first person in the famed Forbes 400 ranking to amass a fortune of more than $100 billion, Bezos now has a net worth pegged at $160 billion, up a whopping $75.5 billion from just a year ago, Forbes said. The media outlet attributes the jump in large part to Amazon's stock price soaring more than 100 percent since 2017.

Bezos, who on Tuesday announced a new $15 an hour minimum wage for his more than 300,000 Amazon workers, pushes Gates to No. 2 on the Forbes 400, trailing Bezos by $63 billion with a net worth of $97 billion, according to Forbes.

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett is the third wealthiest American, with a net worth of $88.3 billion, followed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at $61 billion, Forbes said. Oracle's Larry Ellison and Google's Larry Page ranked fifth and sixth, worth $58.4 billion and $53.8 billion, respectively. The Koch brothers Charles and David tied for the 7th slot, both holding fortunes of $53.5 billion. Google's Sergey Brin landed in the 9th spot, at $52.4 billion, and Michael Bloomberg rounded off the top 10, with an estimated fortune of $51.8 billion.

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