Bezos Grew Net Worth to $156 billion Despite COVID-19 Pandemic
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, continues to grow his wealth regardless of the global pandemic.
The billionaire and founder of the world’s largest e-commerce company, Amazon Inc, saw his net worth increased by $41.3 billion from year-to-date to $156 billion. Despite the new challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon continues to adjust and invest in more technologies at a time when the world did nothing but order from home.
The surged in online sales led to a 26 percent increase in the company’s revenue to $75.5 billion in the first quarter of the year. While admitting that the series of strategies put in place to mitigate COVID-19 risk would weigh on the company’s profitability in the second quarter, the billionaire said it was a deliberate strategy.
He said “If you’re a shareowner in Amazon, you may want to take a seat, because we’re not thinking small. Under normal circumstances, in this coming Q2, we’d expect to make some $4 billion or more in operating profit. But these aren’t normal circumstances. Instead, we expect to spend the entirety of that $4 billion, and perhaps a bit more, on Covid-related expenses getting products to customers and keeping employees safe.”
The company’s share price dropped on the news but Jeff Bezos’s net worth has risen even more since the announcement. In the last 24 hours, Bezos added $4.26 billion to his net worth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Other billionaires like Bill Gates added $2.02 billion to his net worth to N115 billion, Bernard Arnault net worth declined by $10.6 billion to $94.6 billion, Mark Zuckerberg added $12.2 billion to $90.6 billion while Warren Buffet lost $12 billion in the last 5 months to $77.3 billion.