Meet the Next Trillionaires

1. Feeling Bullish

The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq are breaking records again, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average heading that way. The recent run brings to a close the shortest bear market in history, the rapid crash resulting from the massive coronavirus outbreak and associated economic lockdowns across the world. The comeback has been juiced by tech giants, which have taken over our socially distanced lives and are making insane money.

2. Trillionaires

How insane? Apple is the first $2 trillion company, but it’s hardly the only one with Scrooge McDuck–level cash to spare: Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) all have a greater than $1 trillion valuation. Each of them has gained significantly during the pandemic, with Amazon’s stock now 50 percent above its pre-pandemic peak.

3. IPOs Are Back

After a silent spring, companies are going public in droves, and being rewarded for it. An exuberant Silicon Valley, as usual, is leading the way. The next names to know that will hit your stock ticker soon: home rental platform Airbnb, project management tool Asana, the secretive government-tied Palantir and software-as-a-service provider Snowflake.

4. What About Unemployment?

Yes, 30 million Americans are unemployed right now, and 400 million are estimated to have lost jobs globally in the second quarter of 2020. Meanwhile, average wages are declining in real terms. The moral of the story? The stock market is not a measure of the economy as it stands today. It’s about investors’ hopes for the future of these companies. And gains are highly uneven: Tech and communications companies are killing it, while financial and energy stocks are taking a beating.

5. Political Pushback

The rise of stock market giants while the rest of the economy struggles is making them political targets for both the left and the right. There are conservatives like Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, a critic of big tech who is threatening a key legal immunity for online ads. And then there’s Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal who took out an entrenched New York City incumbent and will be one of the biggest stars of the Democrats’ freshman class in January. “We have a system where three white men — Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates — own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of our country. That is deplorable,” Bowman says on the latest episode of The Carlos Watson Show, out today. High on his priority list when he arrives in Washington is “ensuring that large corporations pay their fair share, ensuring that Wall Street contributes its fair share.” Subscribe to the OZY YouTube channel to be notified every time there’s a new episode — and remember: New subscribers will be entered for a chance to win an invitation to a Zoom taping with a celebrity guest!

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1. SPACs

They’re called “blank check” companies, a phrase emblematic of the wild-eyed thinking in investorland these days, and they’re on the move. Special purpose acquisition companies — former House Speaker Paul Ryan is helming one — go public as essentially a shell, with the intention of using the cash to acquire a private business later. This year, 75 SPACs have raised nearly $30 billion in all, which is quite the pile of blank checks.

2. Nikola

Launched on to the market via a SPAC earlier this year, this electric- and hydrogen-powered truck-maker has seen its stock valued higher at times this year than Ford or Fiat Chysyler — despite not yet selling a single automobile. But feast your eyes on this rendering of an electric garbage truck! Investors are betting on a revolutionary technology and a surging market for electric vehicles.

3. Jio

Google, Facebook and Intel have all invested in the Indian telecommunications giant over the past two months, turning its owner, Mukesh Ambani, into the world’s fifth-richest man. As more and more countries shut out Chinese firm Huawei over security concerns, Jio could fill that void.

4. Ant Group

This privately owned Chinese powerhouse led by Alibaba founder Jack Ma is already the world’s highest-valued fintech firm, and now it’s looking to go bigger with a juicy IPO aimed at fetching a record-breaking $30 billion. That would give the company a $225 billion valuation, which would make it more valuable than Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs combined. It’s a major flex for the owner of Alipay, a household name in China. Globally, financial stocks are struggling. But Ant is a different breed.

5. MercadoLibre

Argentina’s largest company by market cap ($60 billion) is also South America’s largest e-commerce company, and it has seen stock prices nearly double over the past six months during the pandemic. No wonder, then, that it’s a pick analysts advise you to invest in for the future.

One of the U.K.’s most famous hedge fund investors called it quits three years ago to move to the Caribbean, but the global uncertainty of the pandemic has reeled him back in. Hendry is part of a class of “pirate” macro hedge fund operators who place bets on the fate of global economies, and who’ve seen massive returns this year.

2. Masayoshi Son

The head of SoftBank declined to disclose whether it turned a profit last quarter — never a good sign — instead pointing to gains in its Vision Fund. Known for tossing money at Silicon Valley startups like a sailor on absinthe, the Vision Fund is getting a leg up from the tech IPO bonanza. But SoftBank is also cashing in on stock market stalwarts: It made exquisitely timed major bets this year on giants like Amazon and Tesla.

OZY first told you about this coronavirus crash Cassandra in March, when he saw gains as much as 40 percent. This was The Big Short all over again, assured a colleague. Now that the market has roared back, those doom-and-gloom predictions are not looking so hot. But Smith’s company is investing big in precious metals, continuing to bet that we’re all in the middle of a giant bubble that’s about to burst.

4. Nicolas Szekasy and Hernan Kazah

The co-founders have turned their firm, Kaszek Ventures, into one of Latin America’s biggest startup investors — and where the world sees gloom amid the pandemic, they’re betting on a boom. Since February, they’ve invested $154 million in 10 different digital ventures — from e-commerce to online learning.

5. Thomas Peterffy

Economists and analysts have puzzled over the rise of the markets amid this recession. The Hungarian-born founder of Interactive Brokers thinks he has the answer: He says the next retail boom is underway thanks to ordinary people with extra time on their hands at home who are day trading.

1. Vaccine Bump

Any good news about wrangling the coronavirus pandemic is going to send markets into a tizzy. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday that the Food and Drug Administration was giving emergency authorization to convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients led to a market rally in the U.S. and Europe. And top administration officials are reportedly telling lawmakers that the administration will approve a vaccine before phase 3 trials are even complete … as their deadline is likely the Nov. 3 election. Can’t let the bull leave town before then.

Investors are increasingly looking at racial equity when deciding where they spread their money. Combine that with a search for hidden gems, and you’ll see how well positioned Candice Matthews Brackeen and Brian Brackeen are. The husband-wife duo is using a $50 million fund to seed underrepresented founders in the Midwest. And to be clear, this isn’t charity: “We’re capitalists at heart,” says Candice.

China’s economy has bounced back more quickly than America’s but gives the U.S. a sobering view of what’s to come — and indeed is already happening. The rich are getting much richer, and the lower and middle classes are barely hanging on.