The engineering grad turned hedge fund VP quit a stable job to build 'the everything store. ': Jeff Bezos is officially the richest person that has ever walked this earth, with his personal fortune eclipsing the wealth amassed by legendary investor Warren Buffet and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates. Bezos made the top spot of Forbes magazine's 2018 World Billionaires list with a net worth of $112 billion. The founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of global e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is responsible for running a platform that accounted for 4% of all U.S. retail sales in 2017 and a whopping 44% of digital spend.