Amazon founder and CEO has seen his fortune surge $20 billion so far in 2020
Just a quarter of a century ago, the name Amazon was still synonymous with South American rainforests; today it’s more likely to evoke images of cardboard boxes than trees.
For Jeff Bezos, the global ecommerce firm’s founder and CEO, the exponential growth of the firm (originally called Cadabra, Inc.) to the behemoth we know today has generated eyewatering wealth and seen him surpass Bill Gates as the world’s richest man.
But while many businesses struggle for survival during the coronavirus pandemic, Bezos has seen his firm surge as global lockdowns made ecommerce the safest – and sometimes only – option.
Not that the gains have come without additional cost. The latest quarterly revenue for Amazon shows a 26% increase year-over-year to more than US$75 billion, but profit was down 29% to $2.5 billion and Bezos warned that spending will increase on wages and keeping staff and customers safe.
“This includes investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing, higher wages for hourly teams, and hundreds of millions to develop our own Covid-19 testing capabilities,” Bezos said.
Trillionaire?
Despite the hit to profits, Amazon’s share price is soaring and that means a big boost to its founder’s wealth.
Bezos has added around $20 billion to his personal fortune so far in 2020. He is now worth around $143 billion and according to one study he is on course to become the world’s first trillionaire.
SME comparison site Comparisun.com calculates that Amazon makes $203 profit per second, far less than Apple ($1,883), Samsung ($1,265), Microsoft ($1,062), Google ($973), and Facebook ($701).
The site calculated in 2019 that Jeff Bezos could become a trillionaire by 2026, beating Jack Ma by four years and Mark Zuckerberg by ten years.
Although the study was published last year, the Amazon chief’s wealth was a trending topic on Twitter this week with many people unhappy at how the company operates including tax arrangements.
The topic has also added to the debate about inequality that has been highlighted globally by the pandemic.
