12 days into 2018, Jeff Bezos claims world’s richest man title on his birthday

Just 12 days into 2018 and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is the world’s richest man worth $108bn strikingly on his birthday.

According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, which looks at publicly available data on company ownership and stock market stakes, making it easy to quantify, Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque and has increased his wealth $2bn from Wednesday-when he gained the title.

“Amazon shares have risen 6.6 percent this year, with a report showing the Seattle-based company captured 89 percent of online spending among dominant holiday retailers in the five-week period beginning the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S,” Bloomberg stated.

Amazon’s founder owns 16% of the company that increased his wealth as a result of a surge in the value of Amazon shares – fuelled by a stock market rally that owes much to Trump’s corporate tax cuts, which came into force at the start of the year.

Following closely is Bill Gates, $93.5bn, though the 62 year old billionaire would have a net worth of more than $150 billion if he’d held onto assets that he’s given away, largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has given away almost 700 million Microsoft shares and $2.9 billion of cash and other assets since 1996, according to an analysis of his publicly disclosed giving.

Bezos also owns the Washington Post and space exploration company Blue Origin that seeks to lower the cost and increase the safety of spaceflight.