Amazon's ever-growing share price has catapulted its founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos – who owns 16pc of the firm's shares – to the top of the Forbes rich list.
Bezos' net worth has now surpassed the $100bn mark, making him the only centi-billionaire on the ultra-wealthy list. Forbes reports his real-time net worth to be more than $123bn.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who was the richest person in the world between 1995 and 2017, before Bezos snatched the title, has a net worth of around $91bn, and rising.
With the net worth of some of the world's wealthiest men close to crossing the $100bn threshold, could we be entering an era of centi-billionaires?
Using Bloomberg data going back to 2016, Telegraph projections suggest that the top four wealthiest people in the world (after Bezos who has already passed the $100bn benchmark) will all become centi-billionaires by May 2022, with Bill Gates reaching this milestone in just nine months' time.
When will Buffet, Gates, Ortega and Arnault reach $100bn?
While the forecasts are by no means conclusive – particularly as much of the wealth at the top comes from the stock market which constantly fluctuates – they give a rough idea of when the upper echelons of the world's rich list will enter the centi-billionaire league table.
Alongside Bezos and Gates, veteran investor Warren Buffett, French businessman Bernard Arnault and Inditex founder Amancio Ortega make up the five wealthiest people in the world, with estimated real-time net worths of $86bn, $75bn and $72.7bn, respectively.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – currently sitting in sixth place – often dips into the top five rankings when Facebook shares are performing well. Much of the 33-year-old's net worth is tied up in Facebook shares, meaning it rises and falls with the company's stock price.
Amancio Ortega, currently fifth on the billionaire rich list, typically earns more than $400m a year in dividends from his 60pc stake in Inditex, the fashion group he founded that owns brands including Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka and Massimo Dutti.
With Zara's rampant growth showing no signs of abating, after Inditex reported a 14pc jump in sales to €5.6bn in the first quarter of 2017, Ortega's net worth is likely to continue to grow in unison.
While Gates owns just 1.3pc of Microsoft stock, having donated a significant chunk to charity, he continues to make money from Cascade Investments, an asset management group that invests his personal wealth.