Jeff Bezos is closing in on the title of world's richest person
Shares of Amazon are are up 3.76% in the pre-market trade, which means that overnight the net-worth of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos grew by approximately $2.8 billion to $81.5 billion.
The move is in response to Amazon's huge earnings beat.The retail behemoth reported revenue of $35.71 billion, beating estimates of $35.3 billion. The company also surpassed earnings estimates of non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.07, reporting EPS of $1.48.
Jeff Bezos is the largest shareholder of Amazon, with about 80.9 million shares or 16.93% of total outstanding shares, according to his latest filing on February 16 of this year.
RELATED: Check out Jeff Bezos' secrets to success in the slideshow below:
On March 29, Bezos surpassed Amancio Ortega, chairman of Inditex fashion group ($74.1 billion) and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet ($75.5 billion) to become the world's second richest person.
Now Bezos is on the verge of becoming the wealthiest person in the world. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos saw his fortune surpass $80 billion for the first time last night.
The only person in the world wealthier than Bezos is Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, with a net-worth of $87.1 billion. Bezos is just $5.5 billion away from matching Gates.
STOCK PRICE FOR AMZN
According to Bloomberg, Bill Gates has been the world's wealthiest man since 2013.
Click here for a real-time Amazon chart.
More from Business Insider:
The top 10 bank stocks to own, according to S&P Global
Airlines are destroying a main pillar of the stock market rally
The market's fear index is plunging at the fastest pace since Trump's election
