Bill Gates Became 'Centibillionaire' For The Second Time

21/03/2019

The race for fame and fortune is probably for everyone. While some people receive none and others experience either one, least experience both.

And here, Bill Gates joined Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos as a member of the world's 'centibillionaire' club.

The Microsoft co-founder and former CEO, and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - and once the world's richest person - has again grown his wealth to great heights, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, which ranks the world's 500 wealthiest people.

Gates joins Bezos as the second person in the world to exceed the $100 billion threshold.

Gates net worth increased at about $9.5 billion in 2019 to reach this height, while Bezos, whose wealth sits comfortably at around $146 billion, has added at least $20 billion during the same period.

Read: Jeff Bezos Worth $100 Billion

Bill Gates - Jeff Bezos
Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, the first two 'centibillionaires' in modern history

Bill Gates once was the richest person on Earth, and also the first person in recent history to reach the centibillionaire net worth.

This happened briefly during Microsoft's reign in the computer and tech industry.

But for one, Gates has been known to feed a huge portion of his wealth into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The mogul has donated more than $35 billion to the foundation, and said he intends to give away at least half of his wealth.

And with other causes, his wealth decreased quite significantly, losing the centibillionaire title, despite remaining as one of the richest person in the world.

In short, Gates hasn’t reached this centibillionaire heights since the dot-com boom, which is about two decades ago.

Bezos on the other hand, is not known for philanthropy, despite putting an interest to it, as once shared on Twitter.

These two fortunes underscore a widening wealth gap in the U.S., where people with the most capital are capable of accumulating fortunes the fastest.

A 2018 global analysis of the billionaire population worldwide revealed that immense wealth hit record levels in 2017. The U.S. joined other world powers in producing more than 100 billionaires, and the top 10 countries in the review represented a majority of the billionaire population globally.

The richest 10 percent of U.S. citizens have accounted for 44.9 percent of all income in 1980, with the top 1 percent alone accounting for 10.7 percent of all income.

This increased significantly by 2014, when that wealthy 10 percent accounted for 67.2 percent of all income, and the top 1 percent made 20.2 percent of all U.S. income.

However, the middle class in the U.S. has a significantly smaller share of overall income and wealth, and it's losing it fast to the upperclass richest people who have nearly doubled their share of overall U.S. income.

One of the reasons, according to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is that the wealthy, including himself, are not paying enough taxes.

"The wealthy are definitely undertaxed relative to the general population," said the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.. "As we get more specialized, the rich will get richer," he continued.

With Bill Gates once again included in the centibillionaire club, at this time, the world is having two centibillionaires for the first time in the modern history.

In the Bloomberg Billionaires Index report, there are 145 people in the world who are designated 'deca-billionaires' with fortunes of at least $10 billion, and there are also some 2,800 regular billionaires. In 2019, one of the biggest losers in the group include Tesla’s founder and CEO Elon Musk.