Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has surpassed Bill Gates as the richest man alive

There can be only one!

I'd like to believe those may have been the words Jeff Bezos uttered to himself this morning while sipping coffee in Seattle. I am of course referring to the news that the Amazon CEO has surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the world's richest man. What's truly astounding is speed in which it was done. Bezos started Amazon in 1994, just 23 years ago and has not only become the richest man alive, he also owns a private space exploration company (Blue Origin), the Washington Post, but has also produced Academy Award winning films and Emmy winning TV shows, though Amazon Studios.

Bezos who currently owns about 17-18% of Amazon's stock or 81 millions shares, is said to be worth $90.6 billion, eclipsing Gates, who sits around an even $90 billion. With the recent successes of Amazon Studios, Amazon Prime, it's line of Alexa devices (the Tap, Dot and Echo), Fire Tablets, cloud-based web services and gobbling up Whole Foods, Amazon, its stock, and by proxy, Bezos, have seen their wealth explode by the tens of billions.

Neither Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates have comments on the new switch-a-roo, but I think we can expect something before the day is over.