Billionaires and millionaires are heading off to their lavish holiday homes to protect themselves and their families from COVID 19
or the endless images of themselves roughing it out in their lavish homes posting videos and images of how difficult it is to cope under these trying circumstances. During these tough times you'd have far more class and decorum and be trying to find solutions or assisting where you can and this list highlights just some of the exemplary billionaires making a huge difference.
In your community there are people making a difference in trying to uplift the morale from sewing masks to collecting food for the poor to shopping for the elderly or offering free online sessions to your neighborhood kids. This virus has brought communities and people together despite the social distancing in place. So let's give some credit to some of the world's billionaires that have really stepped up during the pandemic.
GIORGIO ARMANI
Italy has been one of the hardest hit countries with over 20,000 deaths directly linked to Corona Virus. So many Italian leaders and celebrities have come together to do their bit to help the fight against COVID.Giorgio Armani the Italian fashion designer and the Armani group were some of the first to jump on board to get to helping. The first decision they made was to hold Milan Fashion Week behind closed doors.
They then changed over their factories to produce single-use Medical overalls instead of the latest fashion and have donated millions to hospitals in Milan, Rome, Bergamo, Piacenza and many more places and has also given to the Italian Civil Protection Agency.
BERNARD ARNAULT
This French billionaire is the chairman and chief executive of LVHM which is the largest luxury goods company in the world. There is a severe shortage of hand sanitizer around the world with people dubbing the alcohol-based solution as liquid gold.Arnault has converted several of his perfume factories to produce hand sanitizer instead which will be distributed at no cost to French authorities in hospitals. They've further committed to handing out 40 million masks to France every week with the first delivery costing them around 5.4 million dollars. The aim was to produce 12 tons of sanitizer in as little as a week.
LI Ka-shing
Hong Kong's second richest man Li Ka-shing has contributed roughly 13 million dollars toward the fight against COVID 19. His nickname is Superman and he's definitely lived up to that title since the Corona Virus began.He was the chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings but retired in 2018. His son has since taken over. They have over 300,000 employees in over 50 nations. His foundation has donated 3.3 billion dollars in total since 1980.
Along with other wealthy individuals in Hong Kong a total of 143 million dollars has been donated along with protective suits, goggles and gloves and the donations keep coming in.
JACK MA
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has donated in the region of 14.5 million dollars in efforts against the Corona Virus. He shipped over 100 tones of infection preventing supplies to Africa and 1.5 million laboratory diagnostic test kits.Ethiopian Airlines will ensure the donation gets to where it's needed free of charge. A second donation was also given by Jack Ma which was said to benefit all 54 countries in Africa with an additional two hundred thousand suits and face shields, two thousand thermometers, 500 extra ventilators, 1 million swabs and 500,000 pairs of gloves.
STEVE AND CONNIE BALLMER
Husband and wife duo Steve and Connie Ballmer have donated in the region of 25 million dollars in COVID relief. Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014 and is the owner of the LA Clippers.The first 10 million dollars was given to the University of Washington's Medicines Emergency Response Fund to help speed up the search for a vaccine against the virus. The couple along with others also donated money to arena employees unable to work at the moment because of the pandemic.
Funds were also given to the Los Angeles Unified School District to help the homeless and low-wage workers. Money was also given to the Los Angeles Community College District to assist with food for families that could no longer work because of the outbreak.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
Reports are mixed when pinpointing the exact amount Mark and his wife Priscilla have donated but it's somewhere between 25 and 36 million dollars. The Chan Zuckerberg initiative commitments have seen Bay Area organizations receive five million dollars.UC San Francisco's labs got four million dollars and enough to allow for free COVID 19 testing. 1.65 million dollars went to various educations related grants and Bill Gates’ COVID 19 accelerator received twenty million dollars with talks of another five million dollars coming.
They also committed to match a further 20 million dollars in donations to the United Nations Foundation, the WHO and the CDC. Mark Zuckerberg announced via Facebook they would also donate the seven hundred and twenty thousand masks they had which were bought in case there were California wildfires with a pledge to source millions more.
MUKESH AMBANI
He's the richest man in India although since the COVID pandemic he has lost millions of dollars every day. He isn't the only person in India experiencing huge financial losses because of COVID.Ritesh Agarwal from OYO Rooms saw a 4 billion dollar drop in his company's valuation going from ten billion dollars to six billion dollars in just two months. Despite his own huge daily losses Ambani still has donated 66.7 million dollars to the Corona Virus emergency fund.
This donation wasn't immediately forthcoming as Ambani found himself being the subject of ridicule on Twitter. His wife had posted a video of him clanging a bell as the people of India took five minutes to step outside and bang or clang anything that could make a noise to recognize those in the front lines of the outbreak as was pointed out by several people on Twitter. Billionaires around the world had all donated generously and what does the richest man in India do, he clanks a bail.
JEFF BEZOS
100 million dollars is mere pocket change for the richest man in the world but when it comes to the fight against the Corona Virus it's going a long way. He was giving the substantial donation to feeding America which is a nonprofit organization in America that aims to feed the poor and destitute.Amazon has pledged a further 20 million dollars to AWS diagnostic development initiative and employed over 100,000 extra staff members to assist with the extra demand on delivered items across the globe with a wage increase of $2 an hour.
A further five million dollars has been given to small businesses. 1 million dollars to a Seattle organization helping them battle with COVID and 1 million dollars to COVID funds being collected in Washington DC. It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Bezos though as he came under fire when he asked the public to donate to his Amazon relief fund which would have made money available to Amazon contract employees.
Amazon pledged 25 million dollars to the fund and said if people felt the need to donate they could. The Bloomberg billionaires index recently confirmed that Bezos is one of a few billionaires to see his fortune grow during the pandemic and his wealth has seen roughly a 20 percent increase making his net worth 138 billion dollars.
BILL AND MELINDA GATES
In a Financial Times interview Bill Gates warned the chances of a massive pandemic occurring every 20 years is likely to happen. He mentioned it on a TED talk in 2015 stating that we're not ready for the next epidemic.Again in 2017 he wrote in a Business Insider article that the next epidemic would be a super contagious and deadly strain of the flu. The 100 million dollars that bill and his wife Melinda have donated through their foundation is going toward the global detection of the virus, isolation efforts and treatment of COVID 19. The money will also be used to develop a vaccine and to assisting frontline responders.
JACK DORSEY
He's the Twitter CEO and he's also responsible for putting aside an incredible 1 billion dollars in square equity for Corona relief specifically for girls, health, and education and a universal basic income.1 billion dollars represents 28% of his wealth and his biggest hope is that the huge donation will inspire others to donate just as much or more. Dorsey has made a Google Doc public so you can track exactly where the funds go and which organizations will benefit.