Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other richest men in modern history

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos' fortune just crossed the $150 billion mark, making him the richest man on the planet on an inflation-adjusted basis. His net worth is $55 billion more than Bill Gates who is at #2. Here's a look at Jeff Bezos and other billionaires on the list.

Jeff Bezos is the founder and largest shareholder of Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer. The Seattle-based publicly traded company also operates retail websites Zappos and Audible, serves as a platform for third-party vendors, and provides cloud computing services. Amazon reported revenue of $178 billion in 2017.

Bezos became the richest man a year ago. In January, he became the richest man "ever (or precisely in modern times) after his fortune reached $104 billion - topping Bill Gates' all-time high of just above $100 billion in 1999.
According to observers, Gates' $100-billion fortune in 1999 would be worth about $149 billion in today's dollars. So officially, Bezos crossed Gates' inflation-adjusted fortune.
This also puts Bezos's personal fortune very close to Walton family's $151.5 billion, which is the world's richest dynasty.

Jeff Bezos started Amazon in his parents' garage in 1994. Over the years, he grew Amazon from a small online bookstore into the world's largest online retailer. In order to keep the Amazon machine firing on all cylinders, the company diversified and offered new products and services across segments, including drone deliveries, mobile 3D-printing projects, and branching into the entertainment business.
The e-commerce giant has reported a strong growth in the last few years, driven by its core commerce business and Amazon Web Services. The company also managed to improve profitability, with operating income surging 70% on a y-o-y basis to $2.1 billion.
According to recent industry figures, Amazon recorded net sales worth $178 billion in 2017. Amazon's stock rose more than 55% this year adding more than $50 billion to Bezos fortune in less than seven months.
 

Behind Bezos on the Bloomberg index is Bill Gates with a $95.5 billion fortune. Observers say Gates would have had a net worth of more than $150 billion if he'd held onto assets that he's given away under his philanthropic pledge, largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He's donated almost 700 million Microsoft shares and $2.9 billion of cash and other assets since 1996, according to his company.

Known as the "Oracle of Omaha", Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. His fortunes stand at $83 billion.
Buffett is the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment group that's delivered a 20.9% compounded annual gain in market value since 1953. Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.

The 34-year-old Facebook CEO is now at #4. Zuckerberg's ascent has been driven by investors' continued faith in Facebook, the social-network giant that shook off the fallout from a data-privacy crisis that hammered its shares, sending them to an eight-month low of $152.22 on March 27.
Just like Gates and Buffett, Zuckerberg has pledged to give away 99% of his Facebook stock in his lifetime.

Founder of Zara and retail giant Inditex, Ortega is one of the richest men in Europe. He owns about 60% of Madrid-listed Inditex, which has 8 brands, including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, and 7,500 stores around the world.
Ortega typically earns more than $400 million in dividends a year and hugely invests in real estate projects in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.

#6 Bernard Arnault (LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton): $74.7 bn
#7 Carlos Slim (America Movil): $63.1 bn
#8 Larry Page (Alphabet) $57.7 bn
#9 Sergey Brin (Alphabet) $56.2 bn
#10 Larry Ellison (Oracle): $54.8 billion

Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in India and he ranks 15th on the list. His net worth is $43.3 billion, nearly $105 billion less than that of Bezos.
His wealth derives mainly from Reliance Industries, India's largest private company by revenue with a market capitalisation of more than $100 billion. Ambani is chairman and managing director and, together with his family, controls more than 43% in the company.