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Bezos' bonkers bank of bucks beats big Bill's brilliant billionaire bundle

President Broflake won't be happy about it

Updated Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos rode a surge in his web giant's stock price to overtake Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates as the richest person in the world.

During the rally in Amazon's stock price late Wednesday, Bezos saw his personal paper fortune reach $92.3bn, according to Bloomberg, surpassing the $90.8bn amassed by Gates – who has for years been purging his personal net worth to bankroll his charity work.

This would mark the first time since 2013 that Gates has not held the richest person crown.

The news came ahead of Amazon's Q2 earnings report, where analysts expect the retailer and cloud carrier to report revenues of $37bn.

Bezos holds roughly 80.9 million shares in Amazon – around 17 per cent of the company's shares – according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The news of Bezos' rising fortunes won't be welcome news to Donald Trump, who has taken a fancy to harping on Amazon's "tax exempt" status, largely because Bezos also owns a newspaper that doesn't say what the President wants to hear.

Amazon says it pays sales taxes in 45 states as well as the District of Columbia. ®

Updated to add

Due to a shock stock plunge after revealing Amazon's second-quarter financial results today, Bezos may have just knocked himself off of the top spot. Doh!

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