Amazon boss set to lose world’s richest person crown as shares drop

Push for fast free deliveries hurt online giant’s bottom line

Jeff Bezos is set to lose the number one spot on the list of the world's wealthiest people after Amazon shares tumbled on Thursday. AFP

Jeff Bezos is about to relinquish the title of world’s richest person to Bill Gates, as Amazon stock tumbled in late trading Thursday.

Shares of the biggest online retailer dropped 8.1 per cent to $1,637 in extended trading at 4.24pm in New York.

At that price, Mr Bezos would have a net worth of $102.8 billion (Dh377.6 billion), ranking him second and almost $5bn behind Mr Gates on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Bezos took the top spot from the Microsoft co-founder in October 2017.

The ranking officially updates after the close of each trading day in the US, so the change will not be official until Friday’s market close.

Amazon on Thursday reported quarterly profits shy of Wall Street forecasts, sending shares of the tech giant tumbling in after-market trades.

Net income slid 27 per cent from last year to $2.1bn, with profits pressured by Amazon's spending to speed up most deliveries to one day.

Revenue climbed 24 per cent to $70bn in the quarter to September 30, compared to the $56.6bn in sales logged in the same period a year earlier, the company reported.

Cost of sales at Amazon leapt about 33 per cent, eating into net income, the earnings report said.

Amazon has been promising a wide selection of items to arrive within a day of being ordered under its Prime subscription service.

"We are ramping up to make our 25th holiday season the best ever for Prime customers, with millions of products available for free one-day delivery," Mr Bezos said in the earnings release.

Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, surged 38 per cent this year, boosting the value of Mr Gates’s 1 per cent stake and bringing his fortune to $107.5bn.

The rest of his wealth is derived from share sales and investments made over the years by his family office, Cascade.

Mr Gates, 63, remains an aggressive stock investor, with more than 60 per cent of his portfolio in equities, he said last month.

Mr Bezos, 55, would still be ranked number one if he and MacKenzie Bezos had not divorced.

The pair announced their split in January, with MacKenzie, 49, receiving a quarter of their Amazon holdings in July.

Her net worth would drop to $32.9bn with Amazon shares priced at $1,637, but she would still be the world’s fourth-richest woman.

Mr Gates might never have relinquished the top spot were it not for his philanthropy.

He has donated more than $35bn to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 1994.