How Billionaires Have Fared During the Pandemic

Data show that not everyone has struggled

Robert Lawrence
Cognitive Feedback Loop
3 min readOct 20, 2021

As with other diseases, COVID-19 is often less fatal for those who have more economic resources [1]. In many cases, that segment of the population also fared better financially as well. Data gathered from the Institute for Policy Studies shows that billionaires in fact benefited substantially from the pandemic [2].

This dataset is based on the net worth reported in Forbes magazine of 745 people in the U.S. who could call themselves billionaires in October of 2021, in comparison to their reported net worth in March of 2020 (back when there were only 614 billionaires in the U.S.) [3,4].

From the data for the top 20 billionaires, I’ve made a graphic that illustrates the inflation of their net growth during this 19-month period:

While some showed modest growth in their net worth, 13 of the 20 at least doubled their assets (i.e., more than a 50% increase). On the whole, the net worth for these 20 individuals increased by 85% for a total amount of $835 billion. But a 22% chunk of that growth can actually be attributed to one person alone.

That’s right, Elon Musk saw a 751% growth in his net worth, which amounts to an increase of $185 billion — almost $10 billion for every month of the pandemic so far.

Below is a listing of the 20 billionaires who saw the most growth, along with their industries. From what we know about how the pandemic has shifted supply chains and people’s daily routines, some of this will not be a surprise.

  1. Brian Armstrong, 971% (cryptocurrency investments)
  2. Elon Musk, 751% (Tesla, SpaceX)
  3. Bobby Murphy, 718% (Snapchat)
  4. Evan Spiegel, 641% (Snapchat)
  5. Ernest Garcia, II., 596% (used cars)
  6. Harold Hamm, 545% (oil, gas)
  7. Lee Paul, 510% (packaging)
  8. Jay Chaudhry, 496% (software security)
  9. Jack Dorsey, 431% (Twitter, Square)
  10. Ken Xie, 424% (cybersecurity)
  11. Bom Kim, 379% (online retail)
  12. Philippe Laffont, 364% (hedge fund investment)
  13. Daniel Gilbert, 351% (Quicken Loans)
  14. Vinod Khosla, 340% (venture capital)
  15. Jeff T. Green, 339% (online advertising)
  16. Jensen Huang, 332% (semiconductors)
  17. Anthony Wood, 316% (Roku TV)
  18. Todd Wanek, 303% (furniture)
  19. Ronald Wanek, 259% (furniture)
  20. RJ Scaringe, 240% (electric vehicles)

I will link this dataset again here for anyone interested in taking a deeper dive into the before and after of the 745 richest people in America during this pandemic.

Robert Lawrence illustrates data and writes about science. You can find his published work at: www.robertlawrencephd.com

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Written by Robert Lawrence

Data visualization and science writing. Science editor in academia and biochem PhD. Published work at: www.robertlawrencephd.com

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