There are a lot of billionaires making serious bank in different ways throughout this pandemic the world is dealing with. Li Xiting, co-founder and chairman of a medical devices company in Singapore called Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, has seen his fortune grow by about $1 billion a month this year, thanks to the ventilators his company makes and sells to countries trying to care for coronavirus cases. Li's fortune is up $4.3 billion overall this year so far due to his company's stock seeing an almost 50% gain in value. This gives him a net worth of $13.5 billion, which is a 47.7% increase in 2020 and an average of $37.7 million every day.
The demand for his company's ventilators is high, as they help COVID-19 patients breathe, since people's lungs are attacked by this viral and deadly respiratory illness. The pandemic has exposed a scary shortage of ventilators. Companies from Ford to General Motors are rushing to help ramp up the production of ventilators. Mindray's representative said that global demand for ventilators is at least 10 times what's available at hospitals. New York is less than a week away from exhausting its supply, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Li is reaping the benefits of the fact that there aren't a ton of companies that currently create and produce ventilators because it is a very technical and specified process. Even with companies like Ford and GM stepping in to help, it takes time to ramp up production. In March, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics received orders from more than 100 countries for their medical devices. Italy ordered 10,000 ventilators.
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As of this writing, there are more than three million people who have contracted COVID-19. The death toll sits at 220,000, while 957,000 have recovered.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Li isn't the only billionaire to do well in this pandemic. Have you noticed the jump of prices for goods on Amazon? Normally $26 hair products selling for $46. Normally $4.50 deodorant selling for $26. Amazon has stated it is against price gouging but it's going on anyway and it is pumping up Jeff Bezos' net worth too.
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