Jeff Bezos set to become the world's first ever trillionaire after spike in Amazon sales during pandemic

Can you envision what a trillion – yes, TRILLION – dollars looks like?

Nope, us neither. But one person who may be able to in the relatively near future is Jeff Bezos.

The owner of Amazon is set to possibly become the world's first trillionaire by 2026, according to research from software comparison company Comparisum.

While there are already two companies which have reached a market cap (basically a valuable based on stock prices) of a $1tr (Apple and Microsoft), there is currently no individual with this level of wealth.

The next company to reach the milestone is set to be either Google or Amazon, but Bezos looks likely to be the first person to amass that much cash.

Bezos's wealth has already increased from a staggering £125bn on 12 April to £145bn today – largely driven by an increase in Amazon sales since the beginning of the pandemic. He is currently the richest person in the world, despite a costly divorce settlement last year in which his wife was awarded 25 per cent of their Amazon shares.

If you're struggling to wrap your head around this kind of money, Business Insidermade this comparison: an average American spending $1 is essentially the equivalent to Bezos spending about $1.3m.

Mind. Blown.

MarketWatch has warned that the data which went viral this morning looks to be at least a couple of months old, but with Amazon being a leading brand in one of the few industries which appears to be thriving at the moment, it seems safe to say it's still an accurate prediction.

If Bezos were to be become a trillionaire, this would make him richer than 178 of the 195 countries in the world based on their GDP, surpassing the wealth of the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Switzerland among many others.

People were quick to point out the unfair nature of this kind of wealth being concentrated into one man's hands, especially given Amazon workers have recently been striking due to lack of sufficient measures taken to protect them during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The amount of global poverty which could be eradicated with $1tr is also not lost on us.

Then again, as many pointed out, if you don't like the idea of one man being that rich, perhaps it's something to think about next time you decide to browse Amazon for your latest lockdown-boredom purchase.