The net worth of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the fourth richest person in the world at present, could have been higher than the cumulative assets of both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — the top two richest persons — had he held the shares of the software maker.

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In September 1998, Gates had the equivalent of 2.06 billion shares of Microsoft, when the tech giant first became the world's most valuable company. On October 29, 2021, Microsoft reclaimed the top spot, leaving Apple Inc behind, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

So, if Gates still had those shares, his net worth would have been $693 billion, more than that of Musk ($340.4 billion) and Bezos ($200.3 billion) combined. However, Gates sold a vast majority of his Microsoft shares before exiting the company's board in 2020. His net worth is estimated to be $136.4 billion, as of November 1, 2021.

While Musk and Bezos are working in the area of space exploration among other things, Gates is part of several public health care projects across the world through his foundation. He is also taking up several initiatives in the clean energy space.

Also Read: Bezos', Musk’s space expeditions fail to impress Bill Gates, says 'a lot to do on Earth'

Musk recorded the biggest one-day gain in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI) after Hertz Global Holdings Inc, a US-based car rental company, placed an order of 1,00,000 Tesla cars.

According to BBI, Bernard Arnault, chief of 70 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora, is the third richest person in the world with a net worth of $169.1 billion. The fifth spot is held by Google co-founder Larry Page ($127.7 billion).

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)