Facebook, Amazon chiefs’ wealth rose 15pc amid coronavirus pandemic

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, wealth of the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Amazon and Facebook increased by 15 per cent.

According to reports, wealth of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg witnessed the increase within the past two months.

More than 600 billionaires in the United States (US) became even richer as tech stocks rose during virus lockdowns.
Between March 18 and May 19, their total net worth went up by $434 billion while coronavirus continued to cause unemployment around the world.

Bezos’s wealth grew over 30 per cent to $174.6 billion while Zuckerberg’s fortune increased by more than 45 per cent to $80b billion.

As per a study conducted by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institution for Policy Studies’ Programme for Inequality, Amazon and Facebook stocks have surged following new programmes that pushed their businesses ahead at a time when many consumers are stuck at home.

Reportedly, job losses in the US have surpassed 36.8 million since business shutdowns began in the middle of March to stop the spread of the deadly new disease.

Data also shows that housing sale and manufacturing businesses also collapsed during the said time period.

Coronavirus has killed at least 94,700 people in the US where more than 1.5 million infections have so far been confirmed.