Bill Gates bounces back as world’s richest man

Bill Gates, a foremost philanthropist who co-founded Microsoft, has returned this year as the world’s richest man.

The latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index said Mr Gates, 64, now has $110 billion, deposing Amazon billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, into second place at $109 billion.

Bernard Arnault of Louis Vuitton luxury brand came third at $103 billion while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was fifth at $74.5 billion.

Mr Gates’ income was propelled by his Microsoft stocks, which went up 48 per cent in 2019. The company also secured a $10 billion defence contract for cloud infrastructure from the United States government.

But Mr Bezos’ Amazon posted a lacklustre result in the third quarter of 2019, which saw the founder lose nearly $7 billion in his stock value, reports said.

Mr Bezos had ended Mr Gates’ 24-year run as the richest man in 2018 when he was reportedly worth $160 billion.

The Amazon founder also had an infamous divorce that was finalised earlier this year, which saw his then wife, MacKenzie Bezos, walk away with $36 billion from Mr Bezos’ stocks. It was reported as the biggest divorce settlement in history.

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