Here’s how much the world’s richest people made in 2025

It was a record-breaking year for the world’s richest people.

In 2025, the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals saw their fortunes balloon by an unprecedented $2.2 trillion, driving their combined net worth to nearly $12 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

This surge was fueled by robust gains across stocks, cryptocurrencies, and commodities, buoyed by President Donald Trump unleashing a free-market-blitz, cutting corporate taxes and loosening regulations.

To no surprise, Big Tech dominated the index, as a stock market frenzy for artificial intelligence saw market caps surge.

About a quarter of the index’s gains came from just eight people, with all but one in tech. This includes Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Although, that’s down from last year, when the same eight billionaires accounted for 43% of the total gains.

Musk continued to top the list. Even as Tesla stock oscillated amid supply chain concerns, Musk’s waning popularity, and competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers, his fortunes grew to nearly $623 billion, up by more than $190 billion.

But Ellison briefly eclipsed Musk as the world’s richest man in September, due to a sudden surge in Oracle’s share price, rallying around 25% for the entire month, as the cloud infrastructure company unveiled a $300 billion contract with OpenAI and ramped up AI spending. Yet, since then, broader tech market corrections and concerns about Oracle’s rising debt have tempered those gains, with its stock down about 40% since.

Trump and his family saw their net worth reach $6.8 billion, up $282 million in a year, according to the index. Trump’s business ventures span real estate, social media, and financial services, with many explicitly capitalizing on his political following. Just three days before his inauguration, Trump launched the meme coin $TRUMP, and soon offered its top holders a private dinner with him. The president has been widely criticized for the coin, which had added more than $200 million to the family’s wealth, according to the index. Columbia Law’s Richard Briffault called it “doubly corrupt,” as Trump simultaneously oversees the cryptocurrency industry’s deregulation.

While U.S. equities posted strong returns, international markets outshone them. The S&P 500 Index posted an annual increase of 17%, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng saw gain of 22% and 27%, respectively.

But it was a blockbuster year for precious metals, posting one of their best years in decades, as investors poured into safe haven assets like gold and silver. Copper and rare earths, key materials for producing the batteries and electrical wires needed to power green energy, were also in high demand. Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chile’s Luksic family saw their fortunes balloon by billions.