Amazon chief Jeff Bezos is no longer the wealthiest man on the planet, according to reports. That privilege now belongs to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 63, who has retaken his place as the man with the most money on the planet. Bezos, 55, was knocked off top place after his costly divorce from ex-wife MacKenzie earlier this year. MacKenzie, 49, was awarded 25 per cent of shares they both had in Amazon after helping build the company. That moved her into the top 20 wealthiest people list with a staggering £25billion ($32.7bn) net worth and made it the biggest divorce ever.
Bezos also saw his wealth drop when Amazon’s share price fell over the past year, with the firm announcing its first profit decline since 2017 on Thursday. But please do not feel sorry for Bezos because he’s still worth around £81bn ($103.9bn), which is a fall from £125bn ($160bn) in 2018, according to Bloomberg. That meant Gates, who has been named the world’s richest man on several occasions, overtook him with an estimated value of £82bn ($105.7bn).
Gates also got another one over Bezos after Microsoft won the US Pentagon’s £7.7bn ($10bn) cloud computing contract on Friday in front of Amazon. The contracting process had long been mired in conflict of interest allegations, even drawing the attention of President Donald Trump, who has publicly taken swipes at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos. Trump in August said his administration was reviewing Amazon’s bid after complaints from other companies. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract is part of a broader digital modernization of the Pentagon meant to make it more technologically agile. Philanthropist Gates retired as Microsoft chairman five years ago but is still a board member.