Billionaire wealth growth was undeterred by a coronavirus pandemic which fuelled acceleration for the richest in sectors like healthcare and technology, according to a report by UBS and PwC.
The seventh edition of the billionaire report saw total wealth reach $10.2 trillion, as of July 2020, surpassing the previous peak of $8.9 trillion in 2017-end after a V-shaped rebound in asset prices this year.
The total global billionaire count during the same period grew by 31 to 2,189 billionaires.
Wealth Divergence
According to the report, wealth growth is increasingly divergent as businesses that innovate and deploy technology look to pull ahead amid ongoing disruption across sectors. This was particularly evident in the tech and healthcare sector whose billionaires saw a 36 percent and 41 percent wealth bump, respectively, between April and July 2020 in the depths of the pandemic.
«We have seen before how a cohort of billionaire innovators and disruptors, active in tech, healthcare and industry, have contributed to reshaping the economy,» the report said in an opening statement co-authored by Josef Stadler, global head of family offices at UBS and Marcel Tschanz, PwC Switzerland's head of banking advisory.
«COVID-19 accelerated this trend dramatically: by demonstrating the value of the digital world they helped to create, they were able to decisively pull ahead of the pack as they increased their wealth while others’ fell.»
Tripled Rate
Faster wealth growth in businesses geared for the future economy has been an ongoing process in recent years and has resulted in a growing gap compared to traditional businesses.
The report compared «traditional billionaires» with «innovators and disruptors» and found that the latter group’s wealth growth of $774 billion more than triple the former’s $210 billion between 2018 and 2020.
«This is a key moment in economic history, a time of exceptional, Schumpeterian creative destruction,» the report said. «Scientists, computer programmers and engineers are revolutionizing industries at a pace never seen before and they are having a profound impact on the whole of the global economy. Their influence has ranged.»
U.S. Retains Throne
The U.S. continues to retain the throne and in 2020 widened the gap with runner-up mainland China. Total billionaire wealth in the U.S. grew $650.4 billion to reach over $3.61 trillion compared to mainland China’s $490.8 billion increase to $1.68 trillion.
Still, China’s long-term growth has far outpaced any of its global peers having expanded billionaire wealth by 1,146 percent from 2009 to 2020. Seventh-ranked Hong Kong grew 208 percent during the same period to reach $115.6 billion.
