The coronavirus pandemic has seen some mega-rich individuals profit spectacularly, while others have seen their respective net worths nosedive. Using the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as a guide, we reveal the billionaires who have lost and gained the most since the beginning of 2020. Click or scroll through to find out who they are. Net worth figures as of 26 August. All dollar values in US dollars.

Starting with the winners, Sergey Brin, co-founder and former president of Google's parent company Alphabet, has seen his fortunes increase $11.2 billion (£8.5bn) since the start of the year. That's largely due to his shares in the tech giant, which reached a $1 trillion (£760m) valuation at the beginning of this year. However, not everything has been rosy for Alphabet: its second-quarter revenues were $38.3 billion (£29.1bn), which was slightly better than expected, but still 2% lower than revenues for the same period last year.

Next up is Chinese billionaire Wang Xing, who co-chairs Meituan Dianping, one of the world's largest on-demand delivery services. The business is run through group-buying site Dianping.com, where users can find deals on local products and services, including food delivery. The site offers a deal of the day through vouchers. And Xing has made his own sweet deal from the business, seeing his wealth grow $11.6 billion (£8.8bn) since the beginning of 2020.

Larry Page is the biggest shareholder in Alphabet and served as CEO until December 2019, when he stepped down and was replaced by Sundar Pichai. Despite losing $4.2 billion (£3.2bn) of his net worth on 9 March 2020, a day which has been named Black Monday as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones stock markets each sunk nearly 8%, Page has gained it all back and then some, seeing his wealth increase by $11.6 billion (£8.8bn) in 2020.

Pang Kang is a Chinese billionaire who serves as chairman of Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food Co., the largest soy sauce manufacturer in the world. The businessman has bumped up his net worth by a massive $11.7 billion (£8.9bn) during the pandemic, as Foshan Haitian recorded profits of RMB5.3 billion ($750 million) in FY19, up 22.64% from the year before.

Known for her role as CEO of Fidelity Investments, a mutual funds firm which manages $8.3 trillion in total assets, Abigail Johnson has had a good year so far, boosting her net worth by $12 billion (£9.1bn). She owns an estimated 24.5% stake in the company.

As well as shopping online, millions of bored people have turned to gaming to while away the hours under lockdown. Needless to say, Netease, which is one of the world's biggest online and mobile gaming companies, has been benefiting and its CEO William Ding has been getting a whole lot richer, having added $12.2 billion (£9.2bn) to his fortune since 1 January.

Dubbed the "pork king" of China, Qin Yinglin is head of the Muyuan Foods empire, which breeds and sells livestock. His farms raised and sold 10 million pigs last year and coronavirus doesn't seem to have hit the company too hard: by March, stocks were up 150% year-on-year. Which is good news for Qin's fortune, which has grown by $13.5 billion (£10.3bn) since January.

Tesla stock, along with Elon Musk's wealth, has been performing brilliantly on the whole this year despite Musk'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 it by 10%. As well as winning plaudits for pivoting production to ventilators and PPE, Tesla sold its millionth vehicle in April. On 19 July, the South African-born billionaire became the world's fourth richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, overtaking Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton. 

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Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, is the chairman and major shareholder of tech conglomerate Tencent, one of China's most successful companies, which owns businesses such as social messaging app WeChat. And China's richest man has seen his wealth grow even further during the pandemic as the importance of social media has been underlined, with his net worth leaping by $15.9 billion (£12.1bn).

Microsoft has been booming over these past few months based to a large degree on 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 $19.6 billion (£14.9bn) richer than he was at the start of the year.

India's richest man Mukesh Ambani has increased his wealth by $20.4 billion (£15.5bn) during the pandemic. He is chairman of Reliance Industries, a multinational conglomerate which has seen its valuation increase significantly during the past year. This has bumped up his net worth to $79 billion (£60bn), making him the seventh richest person on the planet.

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.

Social media usage has climbed to an all-time high during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook has been one of the key beneficiaries of this increase in activity and at the end of the second quarter of this year its stock prices had risen 11% year-on year, beating analysts' estimates. Mark Zuckerberg's fortune has grown accordingly, up $27.9 billion (£21.2bn) since the beginning of 2020.

Dan Gilbert, founder of mortgage company Quicken Loans, took the company public on 6 August this year, which has helped him to boost his personal fortune by a total of $37.2 billion (£28.3bn). His other assets, including the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team and real estate in Detroit, bring his total net worth to $44.4 billion (£37.2bn).

Drum roll please... the biggest winner is none other than Jeff Bezos. As we've mentioned, Amazon sales have flourished and the company share price hit a record of around $3,200 per share on 13 July. Bezos' net worth has increased in tandem, up from $115.1 billion (£87.5bn) to a massive $197 billion (£149.8bn).

Now for the biggest losers. Joseph Safra is thought to be the world's richest banker and owns Brazilian bank Banco Safra, as well as Swiss bank J. Safra Sarasin. Yet his fortunes have been dented by the pandemic and he's seen his net worth fall by $3.83 billion (£2.9bn).

No longer Brazil's richest person, Jorge Paulo Lemann is a painful $4.35 billion (£3.3bn) less wealthy since the beginning of the year. The investor's key holdings, which include beer juggernaut InBev and fast food chains Burger King and Tim Hortons, have faltered due to the coronavirus pandemic, hitting Lemann hard in the wallet.

Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko has seen his wealth fall by $4.38 billion (£3.3bn) in 2020 so far. That's perhaps not surprising when you consider the nature of the billionaire's investments. Known for his links to the oil and gas industry, Timchenko's 17.7% share in SIBUR, the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe, is likely to have had an impact on the billionaire's wealth as the company has struggled to contend with oil prices plunging across the globe due to the increased crude oil supply and pandemic lockdown measures. The investor also has a stake in gas company Novatek.

Energy tycoon and pioneer of fracking, Harold Hamm has a knack of making money, losing it and making it back again. And the coronavirus pandemic has seen Hamm's wealth drop once again, as oil prices have taken a tumble. Hamm is $4.62 billion (£3.5bn) down at the time of writing, as the firm he founded and runs – Continental Resources – is being forced to slash production as it tries to weather the storm following the pandemic's lockdowns.

The founder and chairman of Russian natural gas company Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson has waved goodbye to $4.69 billion (£3.6bn) so far this year. Already performing poorly due to Russia and Europe's warm winter, which decimated demand, the natural gas industry has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

Pictured here with fashion designer Giorgio Armani, Leonardo del Vecchio (right) made his fortune as the founder and chairman of luxury glasses and eyewear company Luxottica. His net worth has fallen by $4.81 billion (£3.6bn) since the start of the year due to reduced demand for luxury goods and closure of stores, with Luxottica's share price falling from $153.76 (£116.41) to $131.84 (£99.82) since the start of the year.

Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire Vagit Alekperov serves as president of Russian oil company LUKOIL, a sector which has been hit hard by the pandemic and the resulting oil price crash. In the first quarter of 2020, LUKOIL recorded losses of RUB 46.0 billion ($61.1bn/£46.3bn), meanwhile Alekperov's personal fortunes dipped by $4.91 billion (£3.7bn).

Charles Koch, the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, is unlikely to remember this year with fondness unless his company's fortunes perform a dramatic turnaround sometime soon. The group, which has interests in manufacturing, petroleum refining, commodities trading and ranching, has been stuttering due to lower commodity prices, and this is reflected in Koch's wealth, which has slipped by $5.09 billion (£3.9bn).

Like Charles Koch, Julia Flesher Koch, who as the widow of Koch's late brother David inherited his stake in the business, owns together with her three children a generous 42% of Koch Industries, which as we know hasn't been performing amazingly in recent months. At the start of the year Koch was worth $62.1 billion (£49.7bn). Her net worth now stands at $57.01 billion (£43.2bn), a drop of $5.09 billion (£3.9bn).

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 in his pocket with his fortune currently standing at $12.8 billion (£9.7bn), down from $19.6 billion (£15.7bn) at the start of January.

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.

The first quarter of this year has been tumultuous for US conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which has been busily offloading shares in airlines and other poorly-performing stocks and has seen its share price drop precipitously. As you might imagine, the net worth of famous company CEO and chairman Warren Buffett has fallen sharply too, down $8.62 billion (£6.5bn) compared to 1 January.

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 $14.2 billion (£10.8bn) so far this year. Shares in Carlos Slim Helú's América Móvil company, which is the largest mobile operator in Latin America, have dropped from $16.26 (£12.31) a share to $12.25 (£9.20) a share since the beginning of this year, according to data available on 28 August.

Amancio Ortega has taken an even bigger bashing, having parted with $16 billion (£12.1bn) since the start of 2020. The Spanish retail magnate's Inditex Group, which counts 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 closed their doors and customers have stayed away.

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The biggest loser by far, Bernard Arnault has bid adieu to a whopping $20 billion (£15.1bn) and his centibillionaire status to boot, with his fortune currently at $85.3 billion (£64.6bn) according to Bloomberg. As we've mentioned, the high-end fashion and luxury goods sector has been blighted by the pandemic and the operating profits of LVMH, which Arnault controls, fell by 68% in the first half of the year.

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