Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has reclaimed his position as the richest man in the world, knocking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos off the throne once again.
The multi-billionaire philanthropist briefly took the top spot last month when Amazon reported a 28% drop in profits the three months ending in September, however Bezos soon climbed above again.
Now Gates is back at number one with a net worth of $110 billion – and he’s there to stay, for now at least.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index updates after US markets close, tracking the wealth of the richest 500 people across the globe.
Gates’ rise above Bezos (who now has a net worth of $109bn), could be attributed to a recent Pentagon contract. Beating out Amazon, Microsoft signed a $10bn cloud-computing deal, prompting a surge in their shares – Amazon’s, however, dropped by about 2% after the announcement.
Gates only owns around 1% of Microsoft shares. However, that equates to around $7.3bn, according to Business Insider – this gave the Microsoft figurehead the boost over Bezos, with Microsoft’s shares increasing by 48% this year.
Following Bezos’ split from his wife MacKenzie, his wealth was also took a hit. As part of their divorce settlement, she was given 19.7 million shares of Amazon.com valued at more than $38bn.
Gates’ net worth could have been much higher over the years, but Bloomberg also reported that he has donated more than $35bn since 1994 through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Commenting on the recently proposed ‘wealth tax’ by Democratic presidential candidates, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, Gates said he’s already paid more than $10bn in taxes.
At The New York Times Dealbook conference, Gates said:
If I’d had to pay $20bn, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100bn, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.
Gates also added that he wasn’t sure ‘how open minded [Warren] is… or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money’.
However, in response, Warren recently said she’d love to explain the wealth tax to Gates.
Warren tweeted:
I’m always happy to meet with people, even if we have different views. @BillGates, if we get the chance, I’d love to explain exactly how much you’d pay under my wealth tax. (I promise it’s not $100 billion.)
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.