The richest 500 individuals in the world added a record $2.2tn to their wealth in 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with just eight billionaires accounting for a quarter of the gains.
The gains increased their collective net worth to $11.9tn, bolstered by billionaire Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory and booming markets in cryptocurrencies, equities and metals.
Around a quarter of the gains were attributed to eight billionaires, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Oracle chair Larry Ellison and Alphabet Inc co-founder Larry Page, though 2024 saw more concentrated net worth gains with the same eight billionaires making up 43% of total net worth gains for the wealthiest 500 individuals in the world.
Ellison saw a net worth gain in 2025 of $57.7bn, bringing his total net worth to $249.8bn.
Elon Musk’s net worth soared by $190.3bn, to $622.7bn. Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart saw her net worth nearly triple from $12.6bn to $37.7bn through her rare -earth metals portfolio.
A handful of billionaires experienced declines in their net worth, including Philippine billionaire Manuel Villar, who lost $12.6bn.
Villar’s net worth dropped to $10bn after shares of his property development firm, Golden MV Holdings Inc, dropped by 80% at the end of a six-month trading suspension for the firm.
According to OxFam, a global confederation of non-government organizations, the $2.2tn growth in net worth for the world’s wealthiest 500 individuals would have been enough to lift 3.8 billion people out of poverty.
“Inequality is a deliberate policy choice. Despite record wealth at the top, public wealth is stagnating, even declining, and debt distress is growing,” said Oxfam’s international executive director, Amitabh Behar, in a statement.
