China News Service Client Beijing, May 28 (Zuo Yukun) The outbreak did not affect some wealthy people. Forbes China disclosed on the 27th that the wealth of the top 25 billionaires on the Forbes Global Billionaires List increased by US $ 255 billion in just two months.
The rich get richer: 25 people made $ 255 billion in two months
Since the beginning of 2020, the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic has not only caused a serious global public health crisis, but also seriously hurt the development of the global economy and society.
The United Nations' "World Economic Situation and Prospects for the Year 2020" released by the United Nations on May 13 pointed out that the new pandemic pneumonia epidemic is likely to cause 34.3 million people to fall into extreme poverty in 2020. Forbes also mentioned that since mid-March, the total number of unemployed people in the United States has risen to 39 million, and about a quarter of the US labor force has been affected.
On May 27th local time, the billboards in Times Square in New York conducted a "Dark One Minute" campaign to express the need for support and help from SMEs hit by the epidemic.
At the other pole of wealth, which is in sharp contrast to these figures, the world ’s super rich are getting richer than they were two months ago.
Compared to the time when the US stock market bottomed out on March 23 due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the top 25 wealthy individuals on the Forbes Global Billionaires List have only increased, and now they have risen a total of $ 255 billion.
The selection of Forbes is only for the wealthy people who are linked to wealth and stocks. The total wealth of these 25 people is nearly 1.5 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 16% of the sum of the wealth of all billionaires in the world.
"It seems I can't blame the epidemic without earning money." Some netizens commented.
The most growth: Zuckerberg ’s assets increased to $ 86.5 billion
During this time, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the social platform Facebook, increased his assets from $ 54.7 billion to $ 86.5 billion, becoming the biggest winner.
Zuckerberg, 36, has more wealth than Warren Buffett, founder of Spain Inditex, Amancio Ortega, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison At the beginning of the month, Forbes announced its seventh place in the 2020 Global Billionaires List, which jumped to fourth place in the world.
During the epidemic, Facebook provided opportunities for small businesses to open digital stores. Its e-commerce platform Shops made its debut on May 19 local time in the United States, and investors responded enthusiastically. Over the past two months, Facebook's stock price has soared by nearly 60% and reached a record high on May 22.
The top four of the world's richest people. Image source: Forbes official website
The second largest increase in assets was Jeff Bezos, the world ’s richest man and founder and CEO of Amazon.
With the outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, brick-and-mortar retail stores have closed and closed, demand for online shopping has skyrocketed, and Amazon stock has continued to rise. Since March 23, Amazon ’s stock price has risen by 29%, and Bezos ’assets have also risen by 26%, reaching today ’s $ 146.9 billion.
In the past two months, many countries around the world have imposed blockades. The days of people's homes have hit the real economy, but have made e-commerce platforms profitable. In addition to Amazon, the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo also became a big winner during the epidemic.
The biggest increase: Pinduoduo Huang Zheng became China's third richest
Huang Zheng, founder and CEO of Pinduoduo, the second largest Chinese e-commerce giant, is the richest person with the largest increase in wealth.
Thanks to the group buying model and the strong discounts, Pinduoduo's share price has almost doubled since March 23. The 40-year-old Huang Zheng's wealth also increased by US $ 17.9 billion, and with the assets of US $ 35.6 billion, he became the third richest person in China.
Another wealthy man with an amazing increase in wealth is Mukesh Ambani. In April, Facebook announced to invest $ 5.7 billion in Mio-based telecommunications company Jio. Jio is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Group founded by Ambani ’s late father.
Once the above news was announced, Mukesh Ambani immediately became the richest man in Asia. Since then, the company has raised a large amount of funds, raised $ 750 million from Silver Lake Capital earlier this month, and raised $ 1.5 billion from private equity giant KKR on the 22nd.
In less than a month, Jio raised a total of $ 10 billion in new capital. Since March 23, Ambani's net worth has increased by nearly 20 billion US dollars, and has now reached 52.7 billion US dollars.
It is worth noting that the wealthy rich people are all typical representatives of technology for wealth. This year, online shopping, online education, cloud office, Internet socialization, etc. derived from the "house economy" have become the normal state of life for many people, and this will undoubtedly require strong technical strength.
Forbes pointed out that, under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, billionaires with wealth linked to technology companies' shares have led a road to wealth creation. Earlier this month, the Nasdaq, which has a high share of technology stocks, has returned to a positive value since the beginning of the year. Since March 23, the Nasdaq has risen 37%; the S & P 500 index and the Dow have both risen by 31%, and are still down about 10% and 15% from last year ’s highs respectively. (Finish)