Amazon is now the most valuable company on the planet

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been the wealthiest person on the planet for more than a year.

Now, Amazon is the most valuable company in the world. It passed Microsoft (MSFT) Monday to take over the top spot. Amazon's stock rallied another 1% Tuesday and the company is now worth nearly $810 billion, compared to about $790 billion for Microsoft. Amazon is up 10% already this year. And Bezos, thanks largely to his 16% ownership stake in Amazon, is worth about $135 billion, according to Forbes and Bloomberg.
Bezos also owns space exploration company Blue Origin and The Washington Post. Bezos has a more-than-$40-billion lead over the world's second richest person, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. Still, Amazon's rise to the top of the world's most valuable rankings doesn't mean that Amazon is trading at its highest price ever. The company briefly topped the trillion-dollar mark last September.