Amazon.com founder and The Washington Post owner Jeffrey P Bezos on Thursday briefly became the richest person in the world, displacing Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Mr Bezos’ rise to number one followed a surge in Amazon.com shares Thursday ahead of the online retailer’s earnings report due out later in the day.

The company’s shares have been on a tear over the past year, passing the $1,000 mark and hitting $1,082 around noon on Thursday, propelling Mr Bezos, 53, to $90.6 billion compared with Mr Gates’s $90.1 billion.

Mr Gates, 61, who built his fortune through Microsoft, has long been among the world’s richest and had held the top spot since May 2013.

By midday, however, Amazon shares gave up much of the gain, and Mr Gates reclaimed the top spot on Forbes magazine’s real-time measure of the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest people.

Bloomberg-The Washington Post Service

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017