Amazon share surge briefly lifts Jeff Bezos to world's wealthiest person

Shelly Hagan and Spencer Soper

Updated Jul 28, 2017 – 5.14am, first published at 5.10am

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A surge in Amazon.com shares on Thursday morning in advance of the online retailer's earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world's richest person.

Shares of the online retailer traded at $US1055.37 at 2.17pm in New York, after climbing as high as $US1083.31, which gave Bezos a net worth of $US92.3 billion. Gates had a net worth of $US90.8 billion as of the Wednesday close. In afternoon trading, Bezos remains ranked second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, behind the Microsoft co-founder. Gates, 61, has held the top spot since May 2013.

Bloomberg