As the rest of society struggles with the economic fallout brought on by the coronvirus pandemic, Jeff Bezos continues to get richer.
Already the world’s wealthiest man, the Amazon founder’s net worth soared past $202 billion Wednesday, up about $87 billion since January, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. He is the first person to achieve such a high valuation.
Bezos’ personal wealth climbed to staggering levels after Amazon stock prices surged to a record high of $3,438 per share. His riches are also driven in part by his ownership of Blue Origin, the space travel company he founded in 2000, and The Washington Post newspaper, which he acquired in 2013.
And he’s not the only tech giant to see his wealth balloon amid the worldwide health crisis. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg similarly saw his net wealth surge past $100 billion this month and Tesla’s Elon Musk’s value jumped to $96 billion after a spike in the price of his shares.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders railed against the massive inequity in wealth between the upper and lower classes, pointing to the tech elite as an example. Bezos and his fellow billionaire have raked in a whopping $800 billion combined since coronavirus first emerged, he noted.
“The fact that Jeff Bezos became the world’s first $200 billion man at a time of unprecedented human pain and suffering is morally grotesque,” tweeted Mr. Sanders, a former presidential hopeful. “No. Billionaires should not be allowed to make $800 billion during a pandemic. Our job: Tax the rich and expand Medicare to all.”
First Published: August 28, 2020, 5:14 a.m.
