“The super rich are even richer than they were two months ago. The 25 wealthiest people on the Forbes list have grown by $255 billion since March 23, when the U.S. stock market reached its lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic,” the publication says.
Together, these 25 people hold almost $1.5 trillion worth of capital (about 16% of the world’s billionaires).
Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has been the richest in the last two months – $31 billion. The shares of the social network have grown by almost 60%. This allowed him to rise from 7th to 4th place in the ranking. At the moment the state of Zuckerberg is estimated at $86.5 billion.
Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, is in second place. Thus, since March 23, Amazon shares have risen by 29%. At the close of trading on Friday, the state of Bezos was estimated at $ 146.9 billion, an increase of $ 30 billion (26%) from March 23.
The biggest increase in percentage terms was recorded by Colin Zheng Huang, founder of Pinduoduo, the second largest online store in China after Alibaba. The company created a “social shopping” model during the pandemic, where users can share online shopping with friends and family. In addition, a discount campaign was launched. As a result, Pinduoduo shares have almost doubled in price since March 23, and Colin Zheng Huang has become richer by $ 17.9 billion.
Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, who was recognized as the richest man in Asia, also got rich. In April he made a deal with Facebook, which is to invest $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio, a television company that is part of a conglomerate founded by Ambani’s father. In addition, Ambani attracted other investments (in total the company attracted $10 billion). Now the state of Ambani is estimated at $52.7 billion.
As Forbes stresses, none of the 25 richest people have become poorer since March 23. This situation contrasts sharply with unemployment data in the U.S., where 39 million people (about a quarter of the U.S. labor force) applied for benefits.
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