Here's How Much Money Bill Gates Has Lost During The Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to steal the international spotlight, infecting hundreds of thousands, tanking the stock market, and forcing all of us to consider how much we really like hugs. The effects are widespread, and will likely ripple outwards for years to come. The airline industry is rapidly disintegrating, restaurants and venues are on forced hiatus. Only toilet paper manufacturers, it seems, are in the proverbial money.

It's a business that the super-wealthy probably wish they'd dropped a few duckets into, since even they are currently tightening their belts, potentially unable to ever buy their own fleet of yachts so they can blow them up for 4th of July ever again. Some of the world's richest citizens have been hit to the tune of billions of dollars during the coronavirus outbreak. Warren Buffett is estimated to have lost $5.2 billion in personal value. The Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may soon be forced to shut down his costly Borg regeneration pod and cut off communication with the collective. Meanwhile, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates appears to have dropped a considerable amount of cash in the past few months.

Bill took a hit

As of March 18th, all signs point to Bill Gates' personal wealth falling by 5.09%, or roughly $5.3 billion, as a result of the current financial panic, according to the South China Morning Post. There are a few positive spins on this news. With an estimated net worth of nearly $100 billion, it's likely that the tech mogul will land on his feet.

If anything, the blow to the Microsoft mogul's checking account will likely hurt the public more than Gates himself. Gates has been famously generous with his fortune, initiating the Giving Pledge, an oath taken by billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic efforts during their lifetime. Per a Business Insider piece, he has already given away more than $40 billion. In February, he dedicated "up to $100 million" to coronavirus relief through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Forbes.