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    Billionaires Bezos, Musk & Zuckerberg rode the coronavirus storm to get even richer

    Synopsis

    The billionaires of the world amassed fortunes in excess of $10 trillion this year.

    The lockdown was profitable for Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.Agencies
    The lockdown was profitable for Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
    Amid all the doom and gloom, the world’s richest businessmen and women continued to quietly go about doing what they do best: Get richer.

    According to a study by consulting firm PwC and Swiss bank UBC, billionaires of the world — over 2,000 of them — cumulatively amassed fortunes in excess of $10 trillion this year. Here are five businessmen who found the lockdowns to be profitable:

    Jeff Bezos ($184.1 billion)
    The Amazon CEO, the world’s richest person, had a net worth of $114 billion as of October 2019. A year later, that’s shot up to $184 billion, as Amazon share prices soared. For a few weeks in August, Bezos had a fortune in excess of $200 billion, following a bumper day when his wealth rose by $10 billion in 24 hours, before shares normalised again.

    Mark Zuckerberg ($101.5 billion)
    The Facebook co-founder saw his wealth double in 2020. As of April, Zuckerberg was worth $54.7 billion, while today the fi gure is almost twice that much, as the social media’s usage spiked during the lockdown. This spike means the 36-year-old is one of only four people in the world to be worth over $100 billion.

    Elon Musk ($92.4 billion)
    The SpaceX and Tesla boss has seen the most staggering jumps of all in 2020. This time last year, he was worth $23.9 billion, while today that has increased by over 300 per cent. A big reason Musk’s personal wealth is soaring is because Tesla’s stock is soaring. And despite Musk’s Twitter missteps, Tesla became the most valuable automaker in the world.

    Colin Huang ($39.3 billion)
    Colin Huang, founder of the Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo, is the fourth richest person in China, but his rise has been the fastest of all Chinese billionaires. As consumers turned to Pinduoduo during the pandemic, the company’s Nasdaq-listed share prices doubled in value.

    Eric Yuan ($18.2 billion)
    One of the biggest lockdown success stories has been Eric Yuan, founder of Zoom. Ironically enough, he didn’t even intend for it to be used by the general public at large. The company’s bread and butter, the BBC wrote, are paid subscriptions by corporates. However, as the company’s usage soared by 1,900 per cent, Yuan has added several dollars to his account.


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