HOW 17 WORLD'S WEALTHIEST ARE TAKING IN RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

As the coronavirus pandemic has reached nearly every corner of the world, some of the planet's wealthiest are helping the global effort to combat the COVID-19 outbreak and do what they can for the economy.

1, Jeff Bezos
The planet's richest person announced on April 2 that he would donate $100 million to Feeding America, a national nonprofit network of food banks and food pantries. Amazon has invested $20 million in the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative to bring COVID-19 tests to the market faster.
Amazon is hiring 100,000 new full-time and part-time positions across to the U.S. to meet the surge in demand and increasing wages with an additional $2/hour in America and pay increases worldwide.
Amazon has also donated $1 million to emergency COVID-19 funds in the Washington, D.C., region, created a $5 million relief fund for small businesses and contributed $1 million to a new Seattle foundation to help those affected by COVID-19.

2, Bernard Arnault
The luxury goods tycoon is converting three of LVMH's perfume factories to manufacture hand sanitizer instead. It will be distributed for free to French authorities and Europe's largest hospital system. LVMH has committed to supplying at least 40 million masks to France, paying approximately $5.4 million (5 million euros) for the first week's delivery.

3, Bill Gates
The Microsoft cofounder announced on February 5 that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would commit $100 million to aid global detection, isolation and treatment of COVID-19. More than half of it will go toward developing vaccines, treatment and diagnostics. Gates has committed an additional $5 million to relief efforts in the Seattle area. He also called for a national tracking system for coronavirus in the U.S. during a Reddit AMA on March 18.

4, Patrizio Bertelli, Miuccia Prada
On March 19, the co-CEOs of fashion titan Prada announced they had donated two intensive care and resuscitation units each to the Vittore Buzzi, Sacco and San Raffaele hospitals in Milan.

5, Richard Branson
Branson announced on March 22 that Virgin Atlantic would provide $250 million over the next coming months to support his 70,000-plus employees.

6, Aliko Dangote
Africa's richest person has donated approximately $5.2 million (2 billion nairas) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. He is also reportedly funding the construction of a 600-bed isolation facility in Kano.

7, Jack Dorsey
On April 7, the Twitter billionaire pledged on Twitter to donate $1 billion to coronavirus relief efforts using his shares in Square. Dorsey says that the funds will shift to support women's health, education and universal basic income after the COVID-19 epidemic. In mid-March, he tweeted he would be "sending cash to folks" via the Cash app, asking users to reply with their "cashtag".

8, Kylie Jenner
The cosmetics mogul donated $1 million to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, which will be used to buy thousands of masks and other personal protective equipment, according to Jenner's OB-GYN, Thaïs Aliabadi. Kris and Kylie Jenner are partnering with Coty, majority stakeholder to Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin, to produce hand sanitizers for hospitals in Southern California.

9, Donald Trump
America’s first billionaire president declared coronavirus a national emergency on March 13. The Trump administration has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and has been slow to implement testing for the virus. When asked at a press conference, President Trump refused to take any responsibility for the botched rollout of tests. He has laid off 560 employees at his hotel and golf resort in Miami and has reportedly laid off more at his other hotels in New York, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. Trump is eager to reopen the economy as soon as possible.
“When you have terrible economies, you have death probably, and I mean definitely would be in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about with regard to the virus,” Trump said on March 23. He has donated one-quarter of his presidential salary ($100,000) to the Department of Health & Human Services for coronavirus relief efforts.

10, Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's initiative has given $37 million to COVID-19 relief efforts as of April 13. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's commitments include $5 million to Bay Area organizations, $4 million to expanding UC San Francisco's labs and free COVID-19 testing, $1.65 million in education-related grants and $20 million for Bill Gates' COVID-19 Accelerator with potential for another $5 million.
On March 17, Facebook announced a $100 million grant to aid small businesses impacted by COVID-19. The social media giant has also committed to match $20 million in donations to the United Nations Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
On March 21, Zuckerberg announced Facebook would donate its emergency reserve of 720,000 masks to health workers - purchased in the event that the California wildfires continued - and would work to source millions more to donate.

11, Jack Ma
The Alibaba cofounder has pledged $14 million to help develop a COVID-19 vaccine. On March 13 he announced he's also donating 500,000 testing kits and 1 million face masks to the U.S., with the first shipment leaving Shanghai on March 15.
Ma has sent medical supplies and tests to Italy as well as several other countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia. His foundation and Alibaba's corporate foundation have also established the Global MediXchange for Combating COVID-19 to help doctors across the world share best practices during the pandemic.
On April 4, Governor Andrew Cuomo thanked Ma, Joe Tsai, Counsel General Huang Ping and the Chinese government for facilitating a donation of 1,000 ventilators from China to the state of New York; the giving was part of a larger contribution by the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation, which donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles and 2,000 ventilators to New York, aiming to supply the state's most underserved hospitals.

12, Elon Musk
On Wednesday, March 18, Musk defied a sheriff's order to "shelter-in-place" by keeping Tesla's Fremont, California factory open, with employees being told the factory was "critical infrastructure." After Tesla was confronted by the Alameda County Sheriff's Department that same day, the factory cut its onsite staff from 10,000 to 2,500. That evening, Musk, who has previously dismissed the coronavirus panic as "dumb," has since bought and donated 1,000 ventilators for Los Angeles hospitals as well as supplied N95 masks to the University of Washington Medical Center and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. According to New York City mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio, Musk has also agreed to donate "hundreds of ventilators" to New York state.

13, Josh Harris
The owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils informed salaried employees that pay would be cut by up to 20% in order to keep 1,500-plus hourly workers paid. After much outrage, Harris reversed his decision. "This is an extraordinary time in our world - unlike any most of us have ever lived through before - and ordinary business decisions are not enough to meet the moment," he wrote in a statement. "To our staff and fans, I apologize for getting this wrong."

14, Jim Ratcliffe
His chemical powerhouse Ineos Group is building two hand sanitizer plants - one in England, one in Germany - in 10 days. According to The Guardian, the company plans to produce 1 million bottles a month when the plants are fully operational and provide hand sanitizer to hospitals for free.

15, Oprah Winfrey
The television mogul announced on April 2 that she would donate $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts with $1 million going to chef José Andrés’ new initiative, America’s Food Fund. Fellow billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs is also contributing to America’s Food Fund.

16, Michael Bloomberg
As of April 23, the media billionaire has committed at least $74.5 million to COVID-19 efforts, including a $40 million initiative to curb the spread of COVID-19 in developing countries, a $6 million donation to World Central Kitchen to provide about 1 million meals for 30,000 healthcare workers in New York City and an $8 million donation to the WHO Response Fund. in support of Global Citizen’s One World: Together At Home.
On April 23, Bloomberg committed $10.5 million and organizational support to the state of New York’s COVID-19 tracing program. The following day, he donated $10 million to the International Rescue Committee.
Bloomberg has also donated to a $95 million fund to give grants and interest-free loans to New York City-based nonprofits.
Bloomberg’s foundation has launched several initiatives, including a Local Action Tracker to collect and share actions taken by U.S. leaders in response to COVID-19 as well as a support program to help U.S. cities access and track federal programs and funding sources that are available for COVID-19 response efforts. Bloomberg Philanthropies is partnering with WHO and global health organization Vital Strategies.

17, Michael Dell
On April 3, Dell announced on LinkedIn that his charitable foundation would donate $100 million to COVID-19 relief efforts, including a $20 million commitment to Bill Gates’ COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator. The remaining $80 million will go towards supporting the healthcare system, nonprofits, education and small businesses.
The tech giant that bears his name has donated $284,000 (2 million yuan) to provide medical supplies such as surgical masks to hospitals in China. Dell is also donating $853,000 (6 million yuan) worth of IT services to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hubei province. The company has also set aside $3 million in funds and in-kind technology donations to help COVID-19 efforts worldwide.

(Source: Forbes)

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