- The wealth of US moguls exceeded $360 billion during the pandemic, per $4.
- Oracle and Dell's leaders are among the other
tech billionaires to have profited last year. - Their wealth has attracted scrutiny amid systemic inequality in the US.
The pandemic has been a crisis for many, but not for America's wealthiest billionaires.
The wealth of nine of the country's top tech titans escalated beyond $360 billion last year, $4
Apple's market capitalisation topped the $2 trillion mark last year, making its CEO, Tim Cook, a billionaire, $4
Amazon has substantially profited from people shopping online during the pandemic. Consumer demand at the beginning of the crisis was so high that the company, along with other retailers, faced $4
As $4, employees relied more heavily on cloud computing services, where customers rent data storage from companies including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Google and Facebook also benefited from a rebound in online marketing, as well as increased demand for reliable communication tools, which included Google Classroom and Facebook-owned WhatsApp, $4
Affluent consumers, who were less likely to become unemployed during the pandemic, benefitted from an increase in disposable income by staying at home.
Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg are not the only billionaires whose wealth ballooned. According to $4Oracle's executive chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison, saw his net worth rise from $59 billion to $90.3 billion in the last year. The net worth of Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, rose from $22.9 billion to $44.4 billion in the same time period.
The significant rise in their gains sharply contrasts with the economic destruction faced by millions of Americans, as unemployment and evictions soared. This highlighted deep-rooted societal issues of inequality and the ever-expanding wealth gap.
A $4 also showed American billionaires could fund two-thirds of Biden's COVID-19 relief package just using profits generated during the pandemic.