Jeff Bezos Just Became The Richest Man in the World For a Few Hours

After a brief stint as the world’s wealthiest person in the world, the Amazon CEO — Jeff Bezos — has lost his pole position.

Bezos reportedly overtook Bill Gates on Thursday, but Amazon reported a profit of just $197 million on its $38 billion sales. The dip in profit from $857 million this time a year ago meant Bezos’s $80 million shares in the company would take a sizeable hit.

Due to the loss in profit from last year and according to Forbes’ Real-Time Rankings, Bill Gates is yet again the richest man on the planet. Or, in other words, the natural order has been restored.

This isn’t the first time Bill Gates was surpassed by a candidate on the list for a brief moment. Last year, a Spanish businessman named Amancio Ortega overtook Bill Gates and two days later, lost his spot.

Forbes has been tracking billionaires around the globe since 1987 and Jeff Bezos is the 7th person to hold the title and only the 3rd American besides Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway, who is the CEO of Warren Buffett.

It is worth mentioning that not many would have been able to catch up to Bill Gates’ wealth had he not invested so much of his fortune in Philanthropy. An estimation suggests that Bill Gates has donated $31.1 billion over the course of his lifetime through end of 2016.

In comparison, Bezos, by the end of 2015, had only donated $100 million.

Via TheVerge