Jeff Bezos is now the second-richest person in the world

The king of e-commerce has beat the Oracle of Omaha.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon (AMZN) founder and CEO, is now the second-richest person on the planet, besting Warren Buffett of Omaha-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA). Bezos' wealth climbed to $75.6 billion on Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

That tops Buffett's $74.9 billion and $74.2 billion estimated for Amancio Ortega, the founder and controlling shareholder of European clothing company Inditex.

Bezos still lags his fellow Seattle-area tech pioneer, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose wealth of $86 billion keeps him in the lead as world's richest person.

Helping Bezos get to the No. 2 perch: A rally in Amazon shares to a record. They closed up 2% at $874.32, lifting Amazon's market cap to $422 billion. Bezos owns nearly 17% of Amazon's shares, worth $70 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Barclays Capital on Wednesday started coverage of Amazon with a buy rating and a price target of  $1,120, saying it could be come one of the first $1 trillion dollar market-cap companies.

This week Amazon said it would buy Middle East e-commerce retailer Souq.com. According to Bloomberg, it's terminating 263 jobs at its Quidsi unit, which includes Diapers.com and Soap.com, because it had trouble turning a profit.