Bill Gates tops Jeff Bezos as World's Richest Person

Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates has overtaken Amazon Inc. Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, Friday reclaiming the top rank after two years. 

It is speculated that Pentagon’s surprise decision announced Oct. 25 to award a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft over Amazon has helped Gates beat bezos on the charts. Shares of Microsoft have since climbed 4%, giving Gates a $110 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Amazon’s stock is down about 2% since the announcement, putting Bezos’s net worth at $108.7 billion.

Gates, had briefly topped Bezos, on an intraday basis last month after Amazon posted its first profit drop in two years, but shares of the world’s biggest online retailer pared the decline. The index, which tracks the wealth of the richest 500 people, is updated each trading day after U.S. markets close. Europe’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, is third with $102.7 billion.