A surge in after hours trading for Amazon.com added $US3.3 billion ($4.4 billion) to the fortune of Jeff Bezos, putting him less than $US5 billion ($6.7 billion) away from becoming the world's richest person.
Bezos saw his fortune surpass $US80 billion for the first time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 53-year old has added $US65.2 billion to his net worth since the index debuted in March 2012 and ended on Thursday (US time) with a net worth of $US79 billion. His net worth will surpass $US80 billion on the index for the first time if the gains hold on Friday.
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Earnings lift Nasdaq to record
After the bell, shares of Alphabet and Amazon rallied on strong earnings results.
Amazon shares added almost $US50 in around five minutes after the company projected sales that may beat estimates in the current quarter, furthering an unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth.
Amazon had first-quarter sales of $US35.7 billion and earnings of $US1.48 a share, beating Wall Street analyst expectations.
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Shares closed at $US918.38 at 4pm. By 4.05pm, they had jumped to around $US957, and soon jumped as high as $US965.Â
The stock has jumped over 20 per cent this year.
"Amazon appears to be firing on all cylinders," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.
"The core e-commerce segment growth remains very healthy, Amazon Web Services was fairly stable even with the recent price reductions, and growth in subscription services and advertising is robust, starting to move the needle, and helping to augment profitability."
The rise for Bezos beat the after-hours gains seen by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The pair added $US1.4 billion when shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. rose as high as $US938.18 on news that the smartphone ad business helped Alphabet post revenue of $US20.12 billion and net income of $US7.73 a share.
Page is now worth $US44.7 billion and Brin $US43.7 billion, the 11th- and 12th-richest people in the world on Thursday.
Capitalising on consumers' shift toward handsets and away from laptops, Google crammed more ads into mobile search results, including new lucrative shopping spots, while running more promotions on its Maps app. The result: Parent Alphabet Inc. beat analysts' sales projections in the first quarter, ending a four-year streak of missing Wall Street estimates after the holidays.
Company shares rose as much as 5.2 per cent in extended trading. The stock closed at a record earlier on Thursday in New York.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been No. 1 on the Bloomberg index since May 17, 2013. His fortune slipped $US200 million to $US87.1 billion after hours as Microsoft presented mixed results and slowing tablet sales growth.
Microsoft chief Satya Nadella's plan to reshape Microsoft as a cloud-computing company hit a snag in the third quarter, when lacklustre sales of Surface tablets and weaker demand for corporate software-support services kept revenue growth in check.
Adjusted sales in the period that ended in March rose to $US23.56 billion, falling slightly short of analysts' average estimate. The miss was enough to give investors pause -- the software maker's shares slipped 1.4 per cent following the report, after rising to a record high at Thursday's close in New York.
Bloomberg