Zoom to Moderna: The extraordinary rise and fall of Covid billionaires

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Think back: There really was a time when no one wore sweatpants on Zoom calls with clients
Or even dreamed about buying a used BMW on Carvana.com
changed everything: how we live, work and play, educate our kids
Eric Yuan, denied a US visa eight times before moving from China, watched his fortune hit $29 billion as Zoom Video Communications became
And the father-son duo behind online used-car seller Carvana amassed a $32 billion fortune at the peak
The men belong to an exclusive club of 58 billionaires whose wealth multiplied at an eye-popping pace thanks to changes brought about by
Covid and cheap money, only to plummet even quicker. Their rise and subsequent slump were sharper than the other 131 members of the
extreme poverty. To Kim Forrest, founder of investment firm Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh, the exuberance around companies
benefiting from stay-at-home orders felt like a replay of what she calls the foolishness of the tech bubble two decades ago, when money
mogul who rode a rally in everything from Bitcoin to Bored Apes
None of these ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs has proven immune to a collective effort among global central banks to hike interest rates to tame
rampant inflation
The MSCI All-Country World Index of global shares is down about 25 per cent this year. However, the new fortunes most closely linked to the
pandemic have crumbled at a breathtaking pace, rivalled only by other once-in-a-generation episodes like the 2008 financial crisis and the
Great Depression. Out of the 58 Covid billionaires, 26 have citizenships in Asia, 18 hail from the US and Canada, and 10 from Europe
co-CEO and biggest shareholder of UK-based Bet365 Group
Their businesses broadly fall into seven categories.Lifestyle changes due to social-distancing measures during the pandemic played a big
role: More than half of the tycoons are associated with stay-at-home habits, remote work or e-commerce
singling out the vaccine innovators
before the pandemic, the outsized gains have crumbled away
Wealth has retreated dramatically in each subgroup, led by e-commerce
bored-at-home people have resumed their pre-Covid lives. The rise and decline of these fabulous fortunes took place against a bleak
backdrop
As the Covid-fueled everything rally sent asset prices into the stratosphere, workers across the globe further down on the economic ladder
lost jobs, businesses and savings
There are about 97 million more people living on less than $1.90 a day because of the pandemic, according to a World Bank report. Pandemic
And this year, just as the worst of Covid seems to have receded, new dark clouds bank on the horizon: soaring prices of food and energy,
higher interest rates and the looming risk of a global recession
Even in rich countries, campaigners warn a burgeoning cost-of-living crisis means lower-income households face the choice between heating
and eating this winter
And in poorer nations, the pandemic has undone years of efforts to lift millions out of poverty, with high inflation and surging public debt
bleaker, support behind initiatives to tax rising corporate and personal wealth is growing
Last year, finance leaders from the Group of Seven countries backed a global minimum tax rate on corporate income. In recent weeks, Spain
has introduced a new levy on those with more than $2.9 million in assets, while the freshly elected Colombian president unveiled a goal to
drive up taxes on the wealthiest by about 200 per cent
In a further sign of the shifting mood, the new UK government recently had to retreat from its plans to cut income tax for the rich after
the idea sparked a rebellion among its own parliamentarians.