For the first time in two years, Bill Gates officially regained the richest throne in the world from Jeff Bezos

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has just surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the richest man in the world, after more than 2 years of losing this position.

The change in the world’s No. 1 position was partly due to a surprise decision by the US Department of Defense on October 25 when signing a $ 10 billion cloud computing contract with Microsoft rather than Amazon. Microsoft shares were immediately up 4%, pushing Gates’ total assets to $ 110 billion, according to Bloomberg statistics. Contrary to that, the Amazon stock plunged 2% after the announcement, leaving Bezos total assets at $ 108.7 billion.

Gates, 64, last month surpassed Jeff Bezos, but shortly after Amazon announced its first drop in profits in two years. Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people is updated daily after the US stock market closes. The richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault is currently the 3rd richest billionaire in the world with a net worth of $ 102.7 billion.

For the whole year, Microsoft shares have risen 48%, pushing Bill Gates’s 1% stake here significantly. The remainder of Bill Gates’ net worth comes from investments made through private company Cascade.

In fact, Bezos would have owned a much bigger fortune if he hadn’t had a divorce from his ex-wife MCKenzie Bezos. In January, the couple announced their divorce and she received a quarter of the shares they hold at Amazon. With the value plummeting on Friday, Ms. McKenzie’s fortune also dropped to $ 35 billion.