Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ‘becomes richest man in modern history’ as he tops Bill Gates's fortune

The CEO of Amazon has become the “richest man in modern history”, topping Microsoft founder Bill Gates's wealth.

Jeff Bezos is already the world’s richest person, but has now been named the richest man in history after his net worth hit $150 billion (£113bn) for the first time on Monday.

This net worth is about $55 billion more than the $85.5 billion that Mr Gates is currently worth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Bezos hit the $150 billion milestone on the same day the online store launched Amazon Prime day, its annual global shopping sales event.

In 1999, Mr Gates’ net worth briefly hit $100 billion, which would be about $149 billion today, according to USA Today.

This makes Mr Bezos the richest man since at least 1982, when Forbes published its inaugural wealth ranking.

The current top five richest people in the world behind Mr Bezos and Mr Gates are Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, at $83 billion, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at $83 billion also, and founder of retailing group Inditex, Amancio Ortega, at $75.