Amazon boss is richest man in the world... for half a day!

AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos yesterday overtook Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man – but only for half a day.

A surge in Amazon’s share price in the morning took his fortune to £69.4billion, putting him £382million above Microsoft founder Mr Gates, according to Forbes magazine.

But by the afternoon Mr Gates had reclaimed the lead as Amazon’s stock fell again.

Forbes said Mr Bezos, 53, pictured, had only been able to beat his rival for a short time because Mr Gates has given away more than half of his wealth to charity under the Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage the wealthy to give money to philanthropic causes. Mr Bezos has not signed the agreement but has still given away an estimated £78million.

It comes 23 years after the married father-of-four created Amazon. He started by selling books after quitting his job on Wall Street – and Amazon is now Britain’s biggest online retailer with £6.3 billion in sales last year.

Mr Gates, 61, was briefly knocked off the top spot last year by Spanish retail giant Amancio Ortega, who owns Zara, but again quickly regained it.