The Amazon founder's net worth broke $150 billion in New York on Monday morning, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He is worth about $55 billion more than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who has become a little distracted by saving the world lately. Bezos, 54, has now topped Gates in inflation-adjusted terms. The $100 billion mark that Gates hit briefly in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom would be worth about $149 billion in today's dollars.

That makes the Amazon chief executive officer richer than anyone else on earth since at least 1982, when Forbes published its inaugural wealth ranking. Bezos crossed the threshold just as Amazon prepares to kick off its 36-hour summer sales event, Prime Day. The company's share price was $1,825.73 at 11:10 a.m. in New York, extending its 2018 gain to 56 percent and giving Bezos a $150.8 billion fortune.