Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest person, is now worth more than $150 billion

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is the richest man in modern history with a fortune of $150bn (£113bn).

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr Bezos's fortune is $55bn ahead of the second richest man, Microsoft's Bill Gates. Gates hit the $100bn mark in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, which would be worth $149bn in today's money. It means Mr Bezos is richer than anyone else on earth since at least 1982, when Forbes first published a wealth ranking.

Soaring technology stocks have fuelled huge growth in the worth of entrepreneurs such as Mr Bezos and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who at 34 is number four on the Bloomberg list after investor Warren Buffett. Mr Bezos, 54, founded Amazon in 1994 when it began as an online bookshop before it expanded into selling a massive variety of products. He smashed the wealth record as Amazon was preparing to start its 36-hour summer sales bonanza, Prime Day. 

Top ten wealthiest people:

1. Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder, $151bn (£113bn)
2. Bill Gates (Microsoft) $95bn (£71.6bn)
3. Warren Buffet (business magnate) $83bn (£62.5bn)
4. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) $82bn (£61bn)
5. Amancio Ortega (Founder of Inditex fashion group) $74.8bn (£55.7bn)
6. Bernard Arnault (LVMH luxury goods company) $74.7bn (£55bn)
7. Carlos Slim (business magnate) $63.1bn (£47.4bn)
8. Larry Page (co-founder of Google) $57bn (£42.9bn)
9. Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) $56bn (£41.9bn)
10. Larry Ellison (co-founder of Oracle Corporate) $54.8bn (£40.7bn)