Amazon founder becomes richest man in history

AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos has become the richest man in history with a personal fortune of an eye-watering $135 billion ($US105.1b).

A 1.4 per cent rise in Amazon’s share price made the New Mexico-born businessman $1.7 billion ($US1.4b) richer on Monday alone, The Sun reports.

His net worth grew by around $41.6 billion ($US32.6b) in 2017 alone, with the majority of it coming from the 78.9 million shares he owns in his company.

Mr Bezos, 53, was the first person to amass a 12-digit fortune since Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has given more than $76 billion ($US60b) to charity, achieved the feat back in 1999.