Who Is 'This Person' Who Made More Money Than Chairman Lee Kun-hee This Year?

Looking at the Top 500 Richest People in the World...

Billionaires with Mixed Fortunes

Owners of IT and Bio Companies See Asset Growth

Travel Restrictions Cause Losses for Airline Investors

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jaehee] The flow of capital due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has caused cracks even in the 'their own league.' Owners of companies related to contactless (untact), IT, and COVID-19 vaccines such as bio companies have seen their assets increase significantly. On the other hand, airline stock investors suffered losses due to travel restrictions.

According to Bloomberg's 'World's 500 Richest' list on the 28th (local time), the billionaire who benefited the most from COVID-19 is Jeff Bezos, CEO of the U.S. e-commerce company Amazon. Bezos CEO's asset increase this year reached $66.5 billion (approximately 79 trillion KRW). His total assets rose to $181 billion (approximately 217 trillion KRW). This was because consumers' shopping patterns shifted to online-centered, and with the spread of remote work, corporate demand for cloud services increased, leading Amazon Web Services (AWS) to record high growth. The gap with Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), who had competed for the world's richest rank 1 and 2 until last year, widened to $67 billion.

The billionaire with the second-largest asset increase after Bezos CEO is Elon Musk, CEO of the electric vehicle company Tesla. Although ranked 9th in asset size, he earned $44.8 billion this year alone, ranking second in terms of asset growth.

Chinese individuals also joined the ranks of emerging wealthy. Among the top 10 whose assets surged this year, four are Chinese. Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, saw his wealth increase by $13.6 billion.

On the other hand, Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, saw his wealth decrease by $16.6 billion (approximately 20 trillion KRW). He suffered heavy losses after investing in the airline industry, which was hit hard by COVID-19.

Luxury brands also could not escape the crisis of COVID-19. Bernard Arnault, chairman of the global luxury group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), saw his wealth decrease by $16.6 billion (approximately 20 trillion KRW) this year.

Meanwhile, among Koreans, a total of five people made it onto the world's top 500 richest list. Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics, ranked 74th with total assets of $17.9 billion (approximately 21 trillion KRW). Following him, Seo Jung-jin, chairman of Celltrion, ranked 177th with assets of $9.8 billion (approximately 11.7 trillion KRW). However, this year, Chairman Lee Kun-hee suffered a loss of $1.7 billion (approximately 2 trillion KRW), while Chairman Seo Jung-jin earned $4.8 billion (approximately 6 trillion KRW) during the same period, doubling his asset size. This was influenced by the significant rise in Celltrion Healthcare's stock price amid news of COVID-19 drug development efforts. Next, Kim Jung-ju, chairman of Nexon, ranked 228th (approximately 9.5 trillion KRW), and Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, ranked 307th (approximately 7.5 trillion KRW). Recently, Kim Beom-su, chairman of Kakao's board, newly entered the rankings, recording 412th place with assets of approximately 6 trillion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.