Jeff Bezos Was World's Richest Man For A Few Hours

SEATTLE, WA — Is Seattle big enough for the world's two richest men? A surge in Amazon stock Thursday morning propelled founder Jeff Bezos to surpass Micrsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the world's richest man, according to Bloomberg. Amazon's stock was trading at over $1,000 Thursday morning ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report. At that value, Bezos was worth $90.9 billion compared to Gates' $90.7 billion.

But Bezos' rise to the top was short-lived. Amazon stock tumbled bit by the close of trading Thursday, ending the day at $1,046. And that means Bill Gates is back on top. Amazon's stock topped out on Thursday at $1,083 per share.

In fact, due to Amazon's swing in share value, Bezos ended the day a little less rich to the tune of about $600 million, according to Forbes. Amazon's sales grew 25 percent in the second quarter, according to the earnings report, but profits were off by 77 percent due to spending - like buying Whole Foods.

Watch: For The First Time, Jeff Bezos Became Forbes' Richest Person

Interestingly, Gates and Bezos are neighbors, at work and at home. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is where Gates spends much of his time, is located in the shadow of the handful of new Amazon office towers in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. Both men live in the tiny — but extremely rich — city of Medina across Lake Washington from Seattle.

The next richest men in the world have a lot of wealth to gain before they can catch up to Gates and Bezos. Here are the next nine richest, according to Bloomberg:

• Amancio Ortega, $82.7 billion
• Warren Buffett, $74.5 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg, $70.5 billion
• Carlos Slim, $66.3 billion
• Larry Ellison, $52.9 billion
• Bernard Arnault, $52.4 billion
• Larry Page, $48 billion
• Charles and David Koch, $47.5 billion (tie)

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images