SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is projected to become the world’s first trillionaire.

That’s according to Comparisun, a company which allows small- to medium-sized firms to compare different business products.

Their projection shows Bezos reaching trillionaire status by 2026.

The company said their projection is based on taking the average percentage of yearly growth over the past five years and applying it to future years.

As of Thursday, Bezos’ net worth was estimated at $143 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, which tracks the worth of the world’s richest people daily.

Compared to last year, Bezos’ worth has surged by more than $28 billion.

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has continued to thrive as more people turn to online shopping.

In recent weeks, however, protests were held at several Amazon warehouses as workers call for better safety precautions as they work to meet the surge in demand.

Amazon has released the following statement in response:

“Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to respond proactively, ensuring we can continue to serve communities while taking care of our associates and teams. We have also implemented proactive measures at our facilities to protect employees including increased cleaning at all facilities, maintaining social distance in our sites, and adding distance between drivers and customers when making deliveries. Other measures include:

·       Increased the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites including regular sanitization of all door handles, stairway handrails, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens, to name a few.

·       Adjusted practices to ensure social distancing within our buildings, including:

–        No stand-up meetings during shifts – all business essential information is being shared via boards near main areas and through conversations with managers, or HR team members

–        Moving chairs and spreading out tables in breakrooms

–        Shift start times and break times are being staggered to promote social distancing

–        Suspended exit screening until further notice to ensure ease of movement near main entrances

–        Training takes place in small formats and with in-app training tools and other equipment

·       Requiring employees to sanitize and clean their work stations and vehicles at the start and end of every shift with disinfectant/cleaning wipes.

·       Moved to video-based interviews for the majority of our candidate interviews.

·       Paused public guests to our buildings.

·       Communicated to employees that everyone must wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

–        Each employee has an allotted amount of time that they can choose to do things like go to the restroom, refill their water or go speak to a manager, to name a few examples. In the same vein they can, when they want, log out of their system and go wash their hands whenever they choose—this is in addition to break times and this will have no impact on their performance.

·       Enabled temporary cell phone process for those who need to be in contact with their families or childcare providers.

·       Required all employees to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling unwell and have adjusted attendance policies to support this.  

–        All employees diagnosed with the illness or placed in quarantine will receive up to two weeks of additional time off, to ensure they can get healthy without worrying about lost pay. In addition, we are providing flexibility with leave of absence options for personal circumstances, such as high-risk individuals or school closures. We continue to see heavy demand during this difficult time and the team is doing incredible work for our customers and the community.

–        We have established the Amazon Relief Fund, with a $25M initial contribution, focused on supporting our independent delivery service partners and their drivers, Amazon Flex participants, and seasonal employees under financial distress during this challenging time. We will be offering all of these groups the ability to apply for grants approximately equal to up to two-weeks of pay if diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine by the government or Amazon. “

Amazon Spokesperson

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