Jeff Bezos close to losing title as richest person in the world

Amazon CEO lost billions of dollars on Thursday

Jeff Bezos may lose title as richest person in the world (Getty)

Jeff Bezos may lose his title as the richest person in the world after a tumultuous few days that saw Amazon’s stock plummet.

On Thursday, Amazon released its third-quarter earnings, showing the company’s first profit decline in more than two years, CNBC reports.

The disappointing results caused shares to drop as much as nine per cent in after-hours trading.

For Bezos, who is currently worth $111bn (£86.5bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the fall in share prices meant a personal loss of almost $6.9bn (£5.4bn) - as the founder and CEO of Amazon owns 57m shares in the company.

On Friday, share prices were up slightly. However, if they continue to decline, Bezos could be overtaken by the second richest man in the world, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Gates, who was previously the richest person in the world before Bezos took over the title in 2017, currently has a net worth of $107bn (£83.5bn).

According to Bloomberg, the tech entrepreneur, who owns roughly one per cent of Microsoft, has gained $17bn (£13bn) this year, as stock in the company is up 40 per cent.

Gates is not the only person Bezos needs to watch out for if he is to retain his title as the richest person in the world, as the CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, isn’t far behind.

The French billionaire, who is currently in third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $94.6bn (£73.8bn), briefly overtook Gates’ second-spot place in July.