The year 2020, aptly dubbed “The Year of Corona”, which folded its page after burying more than 1.8 million victims of the deadly virus, put the global economy in a state of coma, like it had not witnessed, even during major wars, and destroyed the livelihoods of millions of families.
However, that year increased the fortunes of the rich at record rates at times, to achieve the famous proverb “The misfortunes of a people with benefits”.
According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the world’s twenty largest wealthy holders, with the exception of only 3 of them, have increased their fortunes by 24% over last year.
Realizing huge profits during the year of Corona
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The Spaniard, Amancio Ortega, the owner of the clothing company “Inditex” was the one whose fortune recorded the largest losses, as it decreased by 7300 million dollars, while the Frenchman Bernard Arnault, the owner of the “LVMH” group of luxury products, was the only non-American on the list of the first ten wealth in the world.
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Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
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As the previous year, the American, Jeff Bezos, topped the list of the world’s richest people, as his main company, Amazon, was the largest beneficiary of the closure measures imposed by countries to confront the pandemic, due to the heavy demand for electronic commerce and purchases, which led to an increase in the value of the company’s shares. By 75%, and its capital reached $ 1600 billion. The report states that Bezos’s fortune reached $ 194 billion at the end of last year, an increase of $ 79 billion compared to 2019.
In second place is the American of South African descent, Elon Musk, founder of the “Tesla” electric vehicle company, whose value in the financial market exceeded $ 100 billion by the end of last year, bringing his wealth to $ 161 billion. Musk’s fortune increased from the start of the pandemic until the end of last month by $ 133 billion, or 482%, over the year 2019, to become the second richest in the world.
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Bill Gates
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And in third place came Bill Gates, whose fortune increased by 18 billion dollars in the year of the pandemic, to reach 131 billion dollars, part of which is allocated to his charitable foundation active in financing development and health projects in the developing world. Financial circles expect Bill Gates’ fortune to achieve a big leap this year after he invested huge sums in buying shares and stakes in pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines against the Corona virus.
But the one who made the biggest jump in the list of the world’s top billionaires during the year of Covid-19 was the Chinese Zun Shanshan, who was unknown last year, and managed to double his fortune 11 times in less than 12 months thanks to the record sales achieved by his best-selling bottled water company. In China.
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Rich people made more money in light of Corona
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This former journalist’s fortune has increased by 997%, to $ 68 billion. He is also expected to make record profits this year after he has invested a large portion of his fortune in vaccine production companies and laboratories for developing the new generation of medicines.
Men occupy 17 places in the list of the 20 largest fortunes, up from 16 last year. The French Francoise Betancourt, owner of L’Oréal cosmetics, ranked first among the richest women in the world, after her fortune increased by 30% over last year, to reach $ 67 billion.
American Alice Walton, owner of Wal-Mart, came second among women with a fortune of $ 62 billion, an increase of 18% from last year. Then came the American MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, who obtained 4% of the shares of “Amazon” under her divorce contract, which led to an increase in her wealth by $ 23 billion in the year of the pandemic.
It should be noted that most of those listed on the list of the world’s twenty largest wealthy have invested huge sums over the past year to buy shares and stakes in pharmaceutical companies, the production of health protection supplies, e-commerce platforms, and organic food production and distribution companies.
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