Amazon boss 'dethrones' Warren Buffett as world's second richest man

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of online retail giant Amazon, has surpassed fashion billionaire Amancio Ortega and legendary investor Warren Buffett to become the second richest person in the world.

Jeff Bezos, founder of online retailer Amazon - Photo: LA Times.

According to Bloomberg, the net worth of Bezos, 53, increased by $1.5 billion on March 29, thanks to a sharp increase in Amazon's stock price after the group announced plans to acquire Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com.

Data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that Bezos is currently the owner of a net worth of 75.6 billion USD, 700 million more than the assets of Buffett - founder of Berkshire Hathaway, and 1.3 billion USD more than the assets of Ortega - owner of Zara fashion company and the richest man in Europe.

Bezos' net worth has increased by $10.2 billion since the beginning of the year. Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States on November 8 last year, Bezos's fortune has increased by $7 billion.

This increase in assets of the American billionaire in the online retail industry is only behind the increase in assets of 18.4 billion USD of Chinese delivery billionaire Wang Wei, and the increase in assets of 11.4 billion USD of Facebook social network founder Mark Zuckerberg.

For Buffett, his fortune has increased by $1.7 billion since the beginning of the year. After peaking at $79.6 billion on March 1, Buffett's net worth has decreased by $4.7 billion.

Ortega's fortune has increased by $2.1 billion since the beginning of the year.

Bezos is now $10.4 billion behind billionaire Bill Gates. The co-founder of Microsoft is currently the world's richest person, with a fortune of $86 billion.

According to Vneconomy