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Trillion is a word that almost sounds made up. It sounds exaggerated and almost childish but it's an actual number followed by twelve zeros. And this funny-sounding word is set to become one famous man's reality. When most people think of "billionaire" it's natural that founder and current executive chairman of Amazon, Jeff Bezos would pop into mind. The man is worth billions, after all and is a regular headline-maker with his innovative thoughts and lofty ambitions. But soon, it's estimated that Bezos is set to depart Club Billionaire and take up residence in the lonesome, faraway Big T Club of which he'll be the only member.
Bezos' Current Net Worth
As the former CEO of such a massive company like Amazon with seemingly never-ending growth, Bezos, 57, enjoys a fortune that's estimated to be worth $201.8 billion. Software-review website Comparisun has crunched the numbers and found out that if Bezos personal fortune keeps ascending at the rate it is now (and we can only assume that it will) Bezos should become the first trillionaire by the year 2026. Bezos will be a spry 62 and we can only imagine what Amazon will have in store for us by then.
His wealth has been increasing at an average yearly rate of approximately 34 percent over the past five years and this is despite his recent divorce settlement with MacKenzie in which Bezos reportedly turned over Amazon shares worth an estimated $38 billion.
Of the twenty-five richest people in the world that Comparisun ran the numbers for, the results showed that only eleven billionaires had a decent shot of becoming trillionaires in their lifetime and their data shows that Bezos will probably be the first. Interestingly enough, their numbers also showed that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could become one too, possibly by 2036 and he will be the youngest at age 51.
A Thriving Treasure
It's interesting to note that Comparisun pulled data from September 2019 so these mega-numbers that have been predicted for Bezos don't even take COVID-19 into account, which led to a major boost of online shopping. His fortune grew by approximately $28.3 billion in 2020.
Thanks to several factors including ease-of-use and familiarity, Amazon sailed out of the pandemic and managed to thrive while other companies suffered horribly. Even a large company like Facebook was hit with a slightly lowered stock price from the start of 2020 while Amazon's rose by about 25 percent since the beginning of 2020.
It's no secret that Amazon is the e-commerce giant and the company shows no signs of slowing with new services being added such as Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Air.
A Very Public Reaction
How the world feels about gaining its first trillionaire is uncertain since it hasn't actually happened yet but we can get an idea judging by the reactions to Bezos' increase in wealth since the pandemic and well, it isn't great.
The Twitterverse certainly doesn't seem thrilled about the idea of one person's fortune growing sky-high while so many people are unemployed and struggling.
"Jeff Bezos is about to become the world's first trillionaire while we're about to enter a depression," said Twitter user @Thomas_A_Moore.
On May 1, 2020, Amazon workers staged a strike along with other companies including Instacart whose services were being stretched to the max during the pandemic. The workers cited "adequate protection in the workplace" as the reason for the strike. And while the matter has been somewhat smoothed over for the time being (Amazon recently dropped a $2 hourly raise for warehouse workers), lawmakers and employer regulators are keeping a watch on the company to ensure proper warehouse conditions.
In fact, Senator Elizabeth Warren called Bezos' active path to becoming the first trillionaire "immoral" and talked about the known criticism and ongoing issue of Amazon's treatment of its workers.
Charitable Works
With as much money as Bezos has know, it's expected that someone with so much wealth would part with some of their fortune to help those in need. And Bezos has topped the list as one of the world's largest charity donors for 2020. He gave $10 billion in order to launch Bezos Earth Fund and forked over $100 million to Feeding America, just to name a few. Last year, during the Australian wildfires that ravaged land in January, he pledged to donate $690,000 to wildlife recovery efforts. But some critics say that it's still not enough for all of the wealth that Bezos is sitting on.
By 2026, Bezos could be sitting on a whole lot more.
Sources: Business Insider, USA Today, CNBC, Comparisun, APNews.com
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