Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Report CEO Jeff Bezos became the world's richest man on Thursday, having amassed a fortune of over $90 billion.

Bezos had a net worth of more than $89 billion as of the close of trading Wednesday. Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report founder Bill Gates' net worth at the same time was over $90 billion. Amazon's share price climbed by more than $15 a share overnight and continues to rise this morning.

The CEO owns about 80 million shares of Amazon.

Amazon stock was up by 2.5% to $1,079.43 early Thursday afternoon. CNBC first reported the news.

This story has been updated from its original publish time of 9:13 a.m.

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