COVID-19 or No COVID-19: Billionaires Getting Richer While Pledging Support to Most Impacted  

Billionaires Adding More Billions to Their Net Worth

As per a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the total wealth of Amazon.com, Inc. founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk has risen by ~ 10 per cent during the ongoing uncertain situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when as high as 22 million people have filed for jobless claims in America.

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It is worth noting that since the onset of this crisis, while most of the stocks in the global equity markets have given up gains causing the fear of a recessionary scenario, some technology and stay-at-home entertainment stocks have recorded price spikes, as the home-ridden population, working and non-working, increased the usage of video conferencing, remote working technology, gaming and streaming through subscription-based media platforms. The net worth of billionaire founders has in turn been on the rise amidst this trend and even those who have holdings in these rallying stocks.

Tesla shares have rallied by more than 73 per cent since the beginning of this year, pushing up Elon Musk’s net worth, instilling somewhat a positive sentiment amongst the investors hoping for a recovery in the near term. At the same time, the Amazon shares have mounted by nearly 31 per cent, as people worldwide take to the e-commerce websites to order groceries and essential items amidst lockdown and quarantine restrictions.

Speaking of Asia, one of the biggest Indian tycoon and billionaire Radhakishan Damani, who owns Avenue Supermarts Ltd, has also recorded a surge of ~11 per cent in his net worth, as the population continues to stock up on staples amidst the world’s biggest social distancing drive causing panic buying. On the other hand, some billionaires across the world are fearing the biggest economic slowdown that has occurred since the Great Depression. Major companies are expecting to face bail outs if things do not get to normal at the earliest, as contractions in economic activity are taking a toll on their operations.

In a recently gone viral CNBC interview, Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital, startled the listeners, as he commented that the government should not bail out billionaires or hedge funds or airline companies and let them just get wiped out completely. He believes that only people are suffering right now, and it does not do any good to save these big companies.

In some countries, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer with millions of people having lost their jobs or are bound to be locked down at home. On the other hand, different companies can learn a lot about leadership by observing these billionaire leaders and their business models and austerity measures in times of adversity.

Some of the popular observations suggest that these leaders, who are excelling right now, have some shared qualities. They are constantly taking accountability for the crisis, focussing on helping others, rather than assigning blame. Such leaders are resilient in the face of sleepless nights and long hours, as they have maintained a clear sense of purpose while communicating complex information clearly and precisely. As a result, some leaders are rising to the occasion and thus helping their companies thrive while others are struggling and operating from fear-based projections.

Philanthropists Unite to Save Lives

Furthermore, in addition to the government stimulus packages being rolled out in most of the countries, the world’s richest are coming forward to pledge their support to combat COVID-19 and help the underprivileged or the ones who have lost their jobs during this unprecedented times.

On that note, as non-profit food banks and food pantries ran out of stock, the billionaire Jeff Bezos has donated around US$ 100 million to fight food insecurity in America to help those countless families and out-of-job people in dire need of the same. In one of his social media posts, he has also captured the fact that food insecurity is an important issue in American households even in ordinary times and the COVID-19 situation has unfortunately intensified the same.

Joining the fight against COVID-19, America’s richest and influential woman, Oprah Winfrey has also come forward to donate US$ 10 million for the relief funds. As a person who grew up in poverty, she aims to provide help to those most impacted by the ongoing crisis such as children who rely on school lunch programs, lowest income families, the elderly, and who have lost their jobs and struggling to survive right now.

American born teen businesswoman Kylie Jenner has also donated US$ 1 million and collaborated with her mother Kris Jenner and a cosmetics company to mass produce sanitisers.

Fondly known for his generosity and philanthropy, Tata Trust Chairman Tycoon Ratan Tata has announced a massive donation of INR 5 billion to contribute and ease the fight against COVID-19, thus contributing to the need of the nation during this adversity. The money is expected to be directed towards manufacturing of personal protective equipment for medical personnel fighting on the frontline, for treating rising cases of respiratory problems, for developing testing kits to increase per capita testing, establishing modular treatment facilities for infected patients, and also knowledge management and training of health workers.

As the world is struggling to pass through one of the greatest health, social and economic crisis, philanthropy is seeing no bars and funds are being channelised from the rich to the poor in whatever way possible.

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