The world's No. 2 richest man took a big step toward the No. 1 slot Thursday. With Amazon shares reaching as high as $965 in after-hours trading (up nearly $50 from the close) on the news that sales may beat estimates for the quarter, Jeff Bezos' fortune was set to cross the $80 billion mark for the time. Bloomberg's math put him within about $5 billion of Bill Gates' net worth of roughly $87 billion. In order for him to get there, Amazon's shares would need to hit $990, reports CNBC; they opened at $948 and were trading at $938 as of this writing. (More Jeff Bezos stories.)