Jeff Bezos Will Become the World's First Trillionaire

With a whopping 36.5 million Americans filing unemployment claims in the last eight weeks as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy, it’s hard to imagine anyone doing well financially these days. But according to a new report, Jeff Bezos is still raking in more cash than most of us can even wrap our minds around; the Amazon founder is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.

According to a study by Comparisun, Bezos’s massive fortune is steadily growing, and he is estimated to become a trillionaire — that’s a thousand billion, for those of us who struggle with math — by the year 2026. With everyone isolated at home and ordering supplies online, Amazon saw $75.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2020.

But despite their CEO’s enormous personal wealth and the company’s profits, Amazon workers have had to fight for things like PPE and hazard pay during the outbreak. The company caught heat recently for firing whistleblowers who voiced their concern, and VP Tim Bray recently resigned over the issue, calling Amazon’s response “chickenshit.”

The optics of Bezos, whose current net worth stands at $143 billion and has grown at an average rate of 34 percent over the last five years, potentially becoming a trillionaire while his workers worry about receiving basic protection during a pandemic are … not great, to say the least.

“Jeff Bezos is expected to become the first trillionaire as he consolidates the retail market during coronavirus,” New Jersey congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman tweeted. “Now Amazon is telling its workers (who have faced significant risk) that it’ll be ending their hazard pay at the end of MAY! Atrocious greed.”

Jeff Bezos is expected to become the 1st trillionaire as he consolidates the retail market during coronavirus.

Now Amazon is telling its workers (who have faced significant risk) that it'll be ending their hazard pay at the end of MAY!

Atrocious greed.https://t.co/JOcsZBwSGo

— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 13, 2020