Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975 and just a decade later he was one of the richest men in America. As the coronavirus pandemic pushed everything from work to socialising online, the already-successful Microsoft made big gains and its share price reached an all-time high of $231.65 on 2 September. As a result, Gates saw his wealth increase by $18.6 billion (£13.7bn) to $132 billion (£97.2bn) in the last year. The third-richest person in the world does use his powers for good though, and is believed to have donated more than $50 billion (£36.8bn) to charity over his lifetime, predominantly through his own charitable fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pang Kang is the chairman of Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food, which is the largest producer of soy sauce in China. The multi-billionaire worked his way up through the company after starting out in its sauce department in 1980, being promoted to vice chairman within two years. Fast-forward almost 40 years and the business brought in 19.8 billion yuan ($3.1bn/£2.3bn) in revenue in 2019 and saw its share price more than double in 2020. Pang currently owns 32.5% of the company. Pang’s net worth is higher than it has ever been at $31.9 billion (£23.4bn) after it increased by $19 billion (£13.9bn) in the last year.

Chinese electronics company Xiaomi was founded by Lei Jun in 2010. The company’s success in the smartphone market led to one of the biggest IPOs of 2018 when it went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that July and its value has been climbing steadily ever since. Lei’s net worth is based on a 30% stake in Xiaomi and other assets that include a 13% share of security and gaming software company Kingsoft, and an 11% share in entertainment and social platform JOYY Inc. While many businesses suffered in 2020, both Xiaomi and Kingsoft’s share prices more than tripled during the year, helping to boost Lei’s net worth by $20.2 billion (£14.8bn) to $31.3 billion (£22.9bn).

Larry Ellison is the founder and majority shareholder of Oracle, a computer software company which generated a revenue of more than $40 billion (£29.3bn) between 31 May 2019 and 31 May 2020. Ellison has a diverse portfolio that includes a third of Redwood City in California, a sailing team, real estate such as Hawaii’s Lanai island and a stake in electric car giant Tesla. Ellison’s wealth grew by $20.9 billion (£15.3bn) in 2020, leaving him with an enviable net worth of $79.7 billion (£58.3bn).

Despite becoming embroiled in several scandals involving bribery, and more recently accounting fraud and stock price manipulating, Samsung Electronics' heir Jay Y Lee saw his wealth grow by $21.2 billion (£15.5bn) in 2020. After being arrested and detained in February 2017 for bribing South Korea's former president, Lee was given a five-year custodial sentence. However, this was then reduced to a suspended two-and-a-half-year sentence in February 2018 and he walked free. On 31 December 2020, the Supreme Court then ruled that his sentence had been too lenient and ordered the case be retried, and now Lee faces a possible nine-year stint in prison depending on the verdict on 18 January. Jay Y Lee was also accused of accounting fraud and stock price manipulating offences at the Seoul Central District Court and proceedings for that case began in October. Lee currently has a total net worth of $28 billion (£20.5bn).

MacKenzie Scott bagged a 4% stake in Amazon following her much-publicised divorce from company founder, CEO and president Jeff Bezos. The e-commerce and cloud computing giant has enjoyed stellar sales during the pandemic, which has sent its share price into the stratosphere, as well as Scott's personal fortune, which grew by $21.4 billion (£15.7bn) in 2020 to $58.5 billion (£42.8bn). However, the world's richest woman has actually been trying to reduce her fortune. Scott announced in July that she had given $1.7 billion (£1.2bn) to 116 charities since her divorce and went on to donate more than $4 billion (£2.9bn) to 380 charities in the last four months of the year, bringing her total giving for 2020 to almost $6 billion (£4.4bn). Scott signed Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge just one month after her divorce from Bezos came through.

Zeng Yuqun, also known as Robin Zeng, made his fortune by founding Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which says it is the largest producer of electric vehicle batteries in the world. CATL supplies the likes of BMW and Volkswagen, as well as Tesla as of February 2020. On partnering with Tesla, the battery company agreed to quadruple its production capacity. Following the electric car giant’s most successful year to date, CATL’s share price soared from 136 yuan ($31/£15) on 28 February to 404 yuan ($63/£46) at the time of writing. Zeng’s 25% stake in CATL accounts for a large portion of his $31 billion (£22.7bn) fortune, which is up $22.1 billion (£16.2bn) compared to this time last year.

Microsoft has been booming over this past year, thanks to a large degree to the success of its video conferencing tools Teams and Skype, which have been many peoples' go-tos during lockdown. And its stock has been hitting record highs. This is clearly very good news for former CEO and major shareholder Steve Ballmer, who is $22.3 billion (£16.3bn) richer than he was going into 2020. Ballmer is currently worth $80.4 billion (£58.8bn).

Social media usage has climbed to an all-time high during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook, which also owns messaging platform WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram, has been one of the key beneficiaries of this increase in activity and at the end of the second quarter of 2020 its stock price rose 11% year on year, beating analysts' estimates. Mark Zuckerberg's fortune has grown accordingly, up $25.2 billion (£18.4bn) during 2020, so that he is now worth $104 billion (£76.1bn).

Former journalist Zhong Shanshan is the founder and majority shareholder of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water company that floated on the Hong Kong stock market in early September and saw its shares rise in value by 85%. In fact, in 2020 Zhong’s wealth leapt a huge $71.4 billion (£52.2bn), both through Nongfu Spring's recent success and from his stake in Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, a company which is making COVID-19 test kits. This has since pushed Zhong’s net worth to $78.2 billion (£57.2bn), meaning that he has replaced India's Mukesh Ambani as the richest man in Asia.

At various points throughout the year Jeff Bezos took the title of the biggest billionaire winner of 2020, but he has since been pushed down into second place. Amazon sales flourished in 2020 and the company share price hit a record of around $3,500 per share on 2 September, after breaching the $3,000 mark on 6 July. It's now settling around the $3,250 mark. The richest man in the world, Bezos' net worth has increased in tandem, up by $75.4 billion (£55.2bn) to a massive $190 billion (£139bn) at the beginning of January 2021. However, this is lower than it previously has been, as his fortune passed the $200 billion (£149bn) point in October 2020.

Drum roll please... The year's biggest billionaire winner is none other than Elon Musk. Tesla stock performed brilliantly on the whole in 2020 despite the CEO's penchant for penning damaging tweets, including the one he put out on 1 May claiming the Tesla share price was “too high”, which caused it to tank by 10%. As well as winning plaudits for pivoting production to ventilators and PPE, Tesla sold its millionth vehicle in April and was only 450 cars away from its target to deliver 500,000 vehicles in 2020, despite the plummet in sales across the rest of the auto industry. On 24 November, the South African-born billionaire became the world's second richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, overtaking Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton, and in the last year his fortune has grown by a huge $142 billion (£104bn). He is now worth $170 billion (£124bn) according to Bloomberg.

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And now for the losers... Leonid Fedun is a vice president and board member of Russian oil producer LUKOIL and helped to privatise the company in the 1990s. He has certainly profited from the move and currently owns around 12% of the company. However, oil prices tumbled in 2020, and although the promise of vaccines and a better understanding of the virus have steadied the market, those dependent on the industry have seen a dent in their wealth. In Fedun’s case, last year saw $2.45 billion (£1.8bn) shaved off his net worth, leaving him with a fortune of $6.66 billion (£4.9bn).

American billionaire George Kaiser first made his money from the family oil business Kaiser-Francis, which he inherited during the 1960s. He has since expanded the business from a small oil venture into a big energy company, and also made forays into banking, buying the Bank of Oklahoma in 1991 for $60 million. However, the oil markets took a beating in 2020, with record low prices, and Kaiser has seen his fortune fall by $2.61 billion (£1.9bn) to $5.97 billion (£4.4bn).

In a classic rags-to-riches tale, Lee Shau Kee grew up in poverty in Guandong Province, but made his fortune in Hong Kong, founding property company Sun Hung Kai with Kwok Tak-Seng, the late father of the billionaire Kwok brothers. Lee Shau Kee went on to create Henderson Land Development in 1976, which is where most of his wealth comes from now. But the property industry has had a tumultuous year, and Lee has seen his fortune fall by $2.96 billion (£2.18bn). He is now worth $21.1 billion (£15.5bn).

Following a career in real estate, California-born Donald Bren joined the investment group that bought the Irvine Company in 1977. The sole shareholder since 1996, Bren has led the company to take control of 115 million square feet (10 million square metres) of real estate including 500 offices, 41 retail centres, three hotels, five marinas, and three golf clubs, as well as 130 apartment communities. However, in 2020 one of America's richest real estate moguls saw his wealth drop by $3.65 billion (£2.69bn) to $12.6 billion (£9.3bn) as sectors including offices, retail and hospitality have struggled due to the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders.

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Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi presides over a sprawling drinks, real estate and retail empire that includes Thai Beverage and chains such as Big C Supercenter, none of which have been doing well during the pandemic. Sirivadhanabhakdi has been feeling the effects financially, with his fortune currently standing at $15.7 billion (£11.56bn), down by $3.89 billion (£2.86bn) since the start of January 2020.

Adding to the long list of industries suffering unprecedented damage due to the coronavirus pandemic is the casino and gambling sector. With venues shut down, the industry has been bleeding cash. Las Vegas Sands reported a revenue drop of 51% during the first quarter and its share price, along with the fortune of company CEO and chairman Sheldon Adelson, has taken a beating. Adelson lost $3.92 billion (£2.89bn) in 2020, and is now worth $34.6 billion (£25.5bn).

The former richest person in the world has an even longer way to go to catch up with the likes of Jeff Bezos following an enormous loss of $3.93 billion (£2.89bn) in 2020. Shares in Carlos Slim Helú's América Móvil company, which is the largest mobile operator in Latin America, have fluctuated throughout the year, dropping as low as 64 cents (48p) on 16 April. Slim Helú is now worth $56.3 billion (£41.5bn).

Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire Vagit Alekperov serves as president of the Russian oil company LUKOIL, and so also features as one of the year's biggest losers alongside colleague Leonid Fedun. In the first half of 2020, LUKOIL recorded losses of RUB 64.1 billion ($871m/£634m). Meanwhile, Alekperov's personal fortunes has dipped by $4.99 billion (£3.7bn) over the past 12 months to $17.3 billion (£12.7bn).

Following the death of Apple co-founder and business magnate Steve Jobs in 2011, his widow Laurene Powell inherited his stakes in Apple and Walt Disney. As of January 2017, Powell Jobs controlled a 4% share in Disney and had also acquired stakes in around 20 companies since her late husband passed away. It is believed that Jobs has gradually been selling off her holdings in Disney and Apple, which accounts for the $5.22 billion (£3.84bn) decrease in her fortune in the last year. Powell Jobs currently has a net worth of $21.3 billion (£15.7bn).

Another real estate business that struggled in 2020, Evergrande Group was founded by Hui Ka Yan in 1996, starting with low-price properties. The business is now one of the largest in Hong Kong, but that doesn't mean it has been immune to the coronavirus pandemic, and net income fell by 46% in the first six months of 2020. In fact, it had to offer discount prices on apartments to achieve sales. The group also has interests in theme parks, mineral water and hospitals, and in early 2019 also invested in electric cars as it looks to take on Tesla. However, it seems that this move has yet to pay off. Hui Ka Yan saw his personal wealth plummet by $6.79 billion (£5bn) over the past 12 months. He is now worth $23.3 billion (£17.2bn).

Spanish retail magnate Amancio Ortega has taken the biggest bashing over the past year, having lost $8.95 billion (£6.59bn). His net worth, however, is still an impressive $66.5 billion (£48.96bn). His Inditex Group, which has fast-fashion chains Zara and Massimo Dutti in its portfolio, has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic as physical stores around the world have been forced to close their doors and customers have stayed away.

Read more about Amancio Ortega's rags-to-riches tale