Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos briefly became the world’s richest man, as stock in the e-commerce company hit an all-time high.
Forbes said Bezos’s net worth was about $90.6 billion (£69 billion) when the market opened on Thursday.
But it was short-lived, as by the afternoon Microsoft founder Bill Gates had reclaimed the top spot as Amazon’s stock fell below the day’s opening price.
A number of people on Twitter congratulated Bezos on the achievement, even if it was just for a few hours.
Congratulations to Jeff Bezos on becoming the richest person in the world. In the past 20 years he has revolutionized the way we shop.
— Ted Pawlikowski (@Fearlessspeaker) July 27, 2017
Congratulations @JeffBezos for being world's richest man…( for a couple of hours) but it is a tremendous achievement indeed…
— Tanuj Patel (@TanujPatel0777) July 28, 2017
But some couldn’t help but crack a joke or two at the situation…
Jeff Bezos was world's richest person for 4 hours today.
Bill Gates was just restarting his Windows PC.
— Shridhar V (@iimcomic) July 28, 2017
Bill Gates was like "Hello Jeff Bezos, please hold this world richest man position for me lemme go and urinate and come back"
— Divinity™ (@CAN_Divine) July 28, 2017
I wonder how Jeff Bezos became the richest guy in the world.
– Me as I take 47 Amazon boxes out of the house
— Faber (@dfaber84) July 27, 2017
Jeff Bezos woke up the world’s richest man—and will go to sleep in second placehttps://t.co/hqbrO4pFkS$AMZN pic.twitter.com/7OeGOZOeYI
— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) July 27, 2017
Even if Amazon’s stock fell as the day went on, the company has been trading at a record high – its shares hit $1,083.31 (£826) at about noon on Thursday.
According to securities filings, Bezos owns about 80 million shares, or 17%. Those shares were valued at more than $87 billion (£66 billion) at the peak. Bezos also owns The Washington Post through a holding company.
