World warms up to first trillionaire: The Standard

Sci & Tech
With a net worth of $143 billion (£117 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is currently the richest person in the world.

With a net worth of $143 billion (£117 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is currently the richest person in the world. However, estimates suggest that his earnings could skyrocket in the coming years, and could even make him a trillionaire in just six years. A recent survey by Comparisun indicates that Bezos could become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026. In the survey, Comparisun analysed market capitalisation of the 25 highest valued companies on the New York Stock Exchange, and the net worth of the world’s 25 wealthiest people over the last five years.

SEE ALSO: Pentagon seeks 'to reconsider' cloud contract to Microsoft

They then calculated the average yearly percentage growth, applying that growth rate for future years to come. The findings suggest that Bezos could be worth $1,000,000,000,000 in just six years. That's the equivalent of one thousand billions, or a million millions! Bezos is the CEO of Amazon, which is one of the few companies to have benefited from the coronavirus pandemic. According to MarketWatch, Amazon sales topped $75 billion (£61.3 billion) in the first quarter, largely driven by a surge in at-home deliveries. However, Amazon has also pledged to spend $4 billion (£3.27 billion) on developing coronavirus testing capabilities for all its employees, improving cleaning of its facilities, and increasing wages for hourly teams. The news of Bezos’ expected net worth has hit Twitter today, with many users discussing the huge amounts of money. One user wrote: “Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second meanwhile, millions of people are currently unemployed.” Another added: “Jeff Bezos is about to become the world’s first trillionaire while we’re about to enter a depression.” And one joked: “Me: JEFF BEZOS IS A GONNA BE A TRILLIONAIRE??? THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!! “Also me: Places my 3rd order from Amazon for the day.”