These Are the Billionaires Who Gained Most During Pandemic

The pandemic, lockdowns, economic crisis, rising unemployment and other issues made year 2020 not worth remembering. For some of the richest people on the planet, however, it was a year when they witnessed incredible wealth gain. Detailed below are ten billionaires who gained the most during the pandemic period.

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Billionaires who gained most during pandemic

We have used the data from the 24/7 Wall Street website, to come up with the ten U.S. billionaires who gained the most (in percentage terms) during the pandemic period. The list takes into account the increase in wealth of these billionaires from March 18, 2020 to Oct. 13, 2020. Following are the ten billionaires who gained the most at the time of the pandemic:

10. Dustin Moskovitz (80%)

Moskovitz, who helped launch Facebook, saw his net worth rose by more than $7 billion. He owns about 2% of Facebook. He left the social networking platform in 2008 and co-founded a workflow software company – Asana. He is also involved with Good Ventures, a philanthropic foundation started by him and his wife. This foundation has donated millions for malaria eradication. In 2011, Forbes reported him to be the youngest self-made billionaire.

9. Mark Zuckerberg (85%)

Co-founder and CEO of Facebook gained during the pandemic period as people used the social media platform more to stay in touch with their loved ones. People also used the platform during the U.S. presidential election campaigns. Zuckerberg’s net worth increased by more than $46 billion last year. Facebook's stock price rose from $150 in March to $276 by mid-October.

8. Lin Bin (133%)

Lin Bin, the cofounder and president of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, almost doubled his fortune between March and October last year. Xiaomi’s share price more than doubled during the pandemic. Before co-founding Xiaomi, Lin had worked at Microsoft and Google. Though Lin was born in China, he is an American citizen. Lin is also on the board of advisors at Tufts University School of Engineering.

7. Jensen Huang (187%)

Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, saw an increase of more than $8 billion in his net worth. NVIDIA shares price almost tripled during the pandemic last year. Huang owns about 21.5 million shares (or about 2.6%) of the PC graphics and AI company. He was born in Taiwan.

6. Jay Chaudhry (213%)

Chaudhry, who is the founder and CEO of Zscaler (a cybersecurity company), saw his net worth rise by more than three times during the pandemic. In absolute terms, his net worth rose by about $6 billion. The Zscaler share price, in which Chaundhry and his family own 45% stake, more than tripled during the same period. Prior to Zscaler, Chaudhry founded four other tech companies (SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust and AirDefense), and all were acquired.

5. Elon Musk (277%)

Most of Musk’s wealth comes from his stake in Tesla, the electric car manufacturing company of which he is the CEO. Tesla’s stock was trading around $70 in March last year, but by October, the share price jumped to over $440. Musk grew up in South Africa, and when he was 17, he immigrated to Canada. He came to the U.S. as a transfer student to the University of Pennsylvania.

4. Jack Dorsey (298%)

Dorsey’s net worth grew by almost $8 billion during the pandemic period last year. He is presently the CEO of social media firm Twitter, as well as the small business payments company Square. Dorsey cofounded Twitter in 2006 and Square in 2009. Square's share price almost quadrupled during March to October. Dorsey owns 74.5% of Square's Class B common stock. In 2016, he gave about a third of his Twitter shares to employees.

3. Eric Yuan (305%)

Yuan’s video communications company Zoom benefitted the most during the pandemic as businesses and schools turned to online mode for operations. Zoom’s share price was below $70 at the end of 2019, but by October last year, the price reached $559. During the period, Yuan’s net worth jumped by almost $17 billion.

2. Ernest Garcia, II (479%)

Garcia is the biggest shareholder of Carvana, which is an online car selling platform. His net worth jumped by more than $11 billion between March to October last year. In 2020, Carvana’s share initially dropped from their peak of $110 in February to below $30 in March. However, the shares rebounded in the latter half of the year, hitting a high of $200 per share in October.

1. Daniel Gilbert (656%)

Gilbert is the co-founder of Quicken Loans, which went public as Rocket Companies in August 2020 at a valuation of $36 billion. He also owns the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert also co-founded StockX, an online sneaker sale platform that achieved a valuation of more than $1 billion in June 2019. His net worth jumped by more than $42 billion during the pandemic period.