Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is no longer the second richest person in the world, according to new figures from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as his net worth has suffered a major decline.
Bezos has been beaten into third place by Indian businessman Gautam Adani, who has seen a rapid rise in his net worth over the past and risen from 14th place at the beginning of the year.
The change can be attributed both to Adani's remarkable success over the last 10 months and a selloff in tech stocks that has occurred since January, denting Bezos' fortune.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk remains the world's richest person in Bloomberg's analysis with a total net worth of $263.9 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index found Adani's total net worth was $146.9 billion compared to Bezos' $145.8 billion.
Adani's wealth is mainly concentrated in the Adani Group, an organization that's involved in a number of business areas including coal, ports, media and green energy. Shares in some of the Indian billionaire's companies have seen a 1,000 percent rise in value since June, 2020.
Shares in his leading company, Adani Enterprises, have seen a more than 115 percent increase in value in 2022. Adani has increased his net worth by around $70 billion in the past year.
The fall in Bezos' net worth is due to a recent selloff of tech stocks, which Bloomberg reported had reduced his fortune by about $45 billion since January.
His 2019 divorce has also contributed to reducing his net worth after his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, received a 4 percent stake in Amazon in the divorce settlement - valued at $38 billion.
However, Bloomberg noted that the gap between Bezos and Adani was just $19 million and that the former Amazon CEO could recover his second place position depending on the performance of Amazon's stock.
Bezos isn't the only billionaire to see an apparent decline in their fortune this year as the world's 500 richest people saw a combined loss of $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
That was despite making major gains during the pandemic and is likely due to economic concerns including near record high rates of inflation that the U.S. and other nations have been experiencing.
The Amazon founder was considered the world's richest person for several years. Forbes ranked him as such in 2018, 2019 and 2020 before he was overtaken by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the world's richest person for many years, including for periods in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. The latest figures from Bloomberg rank Gates in fifth place with a net worth of $112 billion.
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About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
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