While some of the wealth gains are on paper, they nevertheless stand in stark contrast to the tough economic conditions on the ground for tens of millions of individuals. They show how Big Tech has gained from the surge towards digitally-driven work practices and entertainment amid the pandemic.

US billionaire wealth rose by $434 billion during the COVID-19 drama, driven by the rising fortunes of technology sectors in particular that have been boosted by surging demand for digital working. However, the figures are bound to be politically sensitive in a presidential election year when millions of people have lost jobs and businesses have gone bust.

According to a report by Forbes magazine and its own database (May 21), the total net worth of the 600-plus US billionaires rose by 15 per cent in the two-month period. Forbes data had been analyzed in a report by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies' Program for Inequality.

Much of the gains are concentrated in the hands of a cluster of multi-billionaire heads of Big Tech firms that are being boosted by the accelerating shift to digital working and entertainment brought on by the pandemic.

While much of the monetary wealth increase is on paper, based on market movements, such figures are bound to be controversial given the grim economic figures elsewhere. An estimated 38 million US citizens have lost jobs, and second-quarter GDP is expected to show a sharp fall. 

One irony of the situation is that equity markets, while lower since the start of the year, have recovered from their March lows, aided to some degree by central bank money printing. Since January 1, the World Index of developed countries’ equities is down by 11.3 per cent (in US dollars), according to MSCI Barra. QE has boosted asset values such as those of equities and real estate over the past decade, arguably widening inequality and fueling political populism and hostility towards the so-called “One Percent”. This in turn forces the North American wealth management industry to confront the issue of “wealth justification”.

The Forbes report said that the top five US billionaires (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison) saw their wealth grow by a total of $75.5 billion. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has seen his net worth grow by 30.6 per cent in the past two months, boosting it to $147.6 billion; the fortunes of Bezos and Zuckerberg combined grew by nearly $60 billion, or 14 per cent of the $434 billion total.

The report noted the sobering statistic that almost 40 per cent of people working in February and earning less than $40,000 annually have lost their jobs over the last month. 

The figures also underline how ultra-high net worth families, in seeking investment opportunities in areas such as distressed companies, must be sensitive to how this appears to the wider public, while not eschewing chances to recapitalize stricken firms with new money. This will be a difficult balance to strike. 

(Editor's note: Inevitably, while some of the changes may be temporary and could fall back depending on markets, such numbers will also fuel calls – not just from the political Left – for higher taxes on the wealthy. A danger will be that such tax hikes will hit a much wider group than the “rich” and blunt economic recovery. It is no wonder that some of these billionaires are pumping money into philanthropy, as the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been doing. And this is why this news service continues to cover “Big Gifts” philanthropy extensively. There is also a generational issue here: the lockdowns have been justified partly because of a need to protect the most vulnerable people, mainly the elderly. Younger people, such as those leaving college and entering the workforce, must contemplate a difficult future. Many of those losing jobs are in the lower end of the earning scale. The term “intergenerational justice” is likely to get a lot of attention in the months ahead.)