Jeff Bezos becomes world's richest person

Jeff Bezos is on track to become the richest person on the planet. Amazon.com shares surged Friday, lifting its founder’s net worth by $7.8 billion to $91.3 billion as of 10 am in New York, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The stock climbed 10 per cent to $1,070.59, after the retailer reported results that beat Wall Street estimates. If the share gains hold through Friday’s close, Bezos will top the index for the first time. His wealth briefly surpassed that of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on an intraday basis on July 27, but Amazon shares ended the day lower, leaving Bezos at number 2. Gates ended Thursday with a net worth of $88 billion, $4.5 billion ahead of Bezos on the Bloomberg index, a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.