The global pandemic may have ravaged businesses across the world, but it also added to the fortunes of some billionaires, while a host of others saw their wealth eroded.
A total of ten billionaires made it into the list of World’s top 10 richest, according to Forbes.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, and Indian billionaire business magnate, Mukesh Ambani made it into the list of the top 10 World’s billionaires for 2020, displacing billionaires including Sergey Brin and Zhong Shanshan that made the list last year.
In this article, we provide you with the top 10 world’s richest men for 2020 and how they fared in wealth compared to 2019.
Jeff Bezos CEO and Founder, Amazon ($189.7 billion).
Despite giving over $36 billion worth of his Amazon stock to his ex- wife Mackenzie Bezos as part of their divorce settlement last summer, it still wasn’t enough to move the e-commerce billionaire from his spot as being the wealthiest man on the planet.
For the third year in a row through 2020, Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person, thanks to the pandemic that increased consumers’ interest in the purchase of goods online.
Born on the 12th of January, 1964, Bezos is an American internet entrepreneur, industrialist, media proprietor, and investor. He is best known as the founder, CEO, and president of the multinational technology company Amazon.
The year 2020 was a refreshing year for Bezos, as it saw his net worth increase to $189.7 billion, up by 66.4 percent from the $114 billion it closed the year 2019 with.
That’s the highest in five years, according to data from Forbes Wealth Index; and surpassing its 2018 height of $160 billion.
His worth at $189.7 billion, was buoyed by an almost 72 percent rise in Amazon’s shares in 2020. Amazon has been in the spotlight amid the pandemic; it’s hiring 175,000 full- and part- time workers to help meet increased demand from consumers staying home and shopping online.
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Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman, Tesla ($ 155.6 billion)
In an unexpected shoot, billionaire business magnate and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk joined the league of the top 10 wealthiest individuals in the world.
Founded in 2003, his firm Tesla, was started by a group of engineers, who wanted to prove that people didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker, and more fun to drive than gasoline cars.
Today, Tesla builds not only all- electric vehicles but also infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products; and beliefs the faster the world stops relying on fossil fuels and moves towards a zeroemission future, the better.
Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla – and in space, via rocket producer Spacex.
Musk has turned fabulously wealthy this year. Despite the pandemic, Musk net worth jumped to $155.6 billion in year-end 2020, about $135.7 billion higher than the $19.9 billion net worth of 2019.
Tesla Stock, which he owns 21 percent of, has returned about 857 percent within a year alone to investors and now has a market capitalization that stands at $ 668.9 billion. That’s more than the entire GDP Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya combined.
A South African brought up, before immigrating to Canada at age 17, Musk’s Tesla remains the only major carmaker to have a huge physical presence in the world’s second-largest economy. With the electric-car maker’s launch of a new factory in China in 2019 and the beginning of its Model Y models earlier this year, investors may want to continue holding.
His wealth gain is largely attributed to Tesla, the electric car automaker, which has gained 800 percent in 2020 and has become by far the world’s most valuable automaker in the world, despite it producing far less than Volkswagen, Toyota, or General Motors. He is also the CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, a rocket manufacturer tapped by NASA to resupply the space station.
Bernard Arnault & family, Chairman and CEO, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton ($ 150.9 billion).
Bernard Arnault, born 5th March 1949 is a French billionaire businessman and art collector.
One of the world’s ultimate taste- makers, he oversees an empire of 70 brands including LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury-goods company, and Sephora.
He is the chairman and chief executive In April 2018, he became the richest person in fashion, toppling Zara’s Amancio Ortega. Arnault briefly surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world in December 2019. He again became the world’s richest person for a short time in January 2020.
He, however, closed the year 3rd with his net worth jumping by 98.5 to $150.9 billion from $ 76 billion as at 2019.
Bill Gates, Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ( 120.3 billion).
Billionaire philanthropist, Bill Gates failed to retain his number two spot, falling further to number four after being overtaken by Musk and Arnault
With his wife Melinda, Bill Gates chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation.
The Gates Foundation which has been in the forefront in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic is to have spent over $300 million in funding treatment, detection and vaccines.
He closed the year with a net worth of $ 120.3 billion, up 13.5 percent from the $ 106 billion it closed last year.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook ($100.3 billion)
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, came fifth in the top 10 billionaire ranking, falling two spots from its position he ended the year 2019 with.
Although Zuckerberg’s Facebook, the social network became a go-to communications tool during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, more than 1,000 advertisers joined a boycott in June to protest Facebook’s lax policing of hate speech and misleading posts from politicians.
Notwithstanding, his net worth ended the year at $ 100.3 billion, up from the $ 69.6 billion it closed the year 2019 with.
Larry Ellison, CTO and Founder, Oracle ($ 88.25 billion).
Larry Ellison is chairman, chief technology officer and co- founder of software giant Oracle, of which he owns about 35.4 percent.
He gave up the Oracle CEO role in 2014 after 37 years at the helm.
Ellison joined Tesla’s board in December 2018, after purchasing 3 million Tesla shares earlier that year. He came 6th on the billionaire ranking with a net worth of $ 88.2 billion as at end 2020, up from 65 billion the same period in 2019. Warren Buffet, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway ($ 87.5 billion) Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.
He runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
The son of a U. S. congressman, he first bought a stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
He has promised to donate over 99 percent of his wealth. So far he has given more than $ 41 billion, mostly to the Gates Foundation and his kids’ foundations, according to Forbes.
Although falling 3 spots from the 2019 ranking, Buffett emerged world’s 7th wealthiest billionaires with a net worth of $87 billion at the end of 2020, up by 7.7 percent from a net worth of $80.8 billion in 2019.
Larry Page, Cofounder and board member, Google ($77.2 billion).
Coming on the eight of the list with a net worth of $77.2 billion is Larry Page, Cofounder and board member, Google.
He co-founded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford PHD student Sergey Brin. In 2019, Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, the parent of Google, but remained as a board member and a controlling shareholder.
His 2020 net worth was $ 21.7 billion higher than his fortunes in 2019.
Mukesh Am bani, Founder and Chairman, Reliance Industries ($76.8 billion).
Mukesh Ambani, Indian billionaire business magnate, and the chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Ltd. ( RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value, made it into the list of the Forbes top 10 billionaire index.
Ambani chairs and runs $88 billion (revenue) Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail.
During the Covid- 19 lockdown, Ambani raised more than $ 20 billion selling a third of Jio to a string of investors, such as Facebook and Google.
His net worth came to $ 76.8 billion at the end of 2020, up by 26.3 percent from the $ 60.8 billion net worth last year.
Steve Ballmer, Owner, Los Angeles Clippers ($ 75.2 billion).
Steve Ballmer is the high- wattage former CEO of Mi c rosoft, who led the company from 2000 to 2014. In 2018, he invested $ 59 million in Social Solutions, which makes software for nonprofits and government agencies. His net worth was up by 45.5 percent to $ 75.2 billion at the end of 2020 from $ 51.7 billion in 2019.
