Bill Gates tops Jeff Bezos as richest person in the world

Microsoft founder Bill Gates reclaimed the world’s richest person mantle from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

The ranking was released Friday by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which gave Gates, 64, a net worth of $110 billion. Bezos, 55, sat just below him with a $109 billion net worth.

The Pentagon’s recent decision to dgrant a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft rather than Amazon may have been a factor in the news, according to Bloomberg. Shares of Microsoft increased 4% since the decision was made public in October. On the other hand, Amazon’s stock is down about 2% since the announcement.

Bezos would be far wealthier if he and his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos hadn’t divorced, however. MacKenzie Bezos, 49, received more than $35 billion in the divorce settlement. She pledged to donate half of it to charity.

Gates has also made a dent in his wealth through his philanthropy. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated more than $35 billion to charity since 1994.

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