A year of asset frenzy: The wealth of the world's top billionaires surged by $2.2 trillion in 2025.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as various markets such as stocks, cryptocurrencies, and precious metals flourished and pushed asset values soaring, the world's 500 wealthiest individuals saw their total wealth increase by a record $2.2 trillion in 2025. As a result, their total net worth increased to $11.9 trillion. This growth was strongly driven by Donald Trump's election victory at the end of 2024, only briefly hindered by a market crash due to tariff concerns in April, which led to the largest single-day wealth shrinkage since the pandemic. The AI boom continued to support mega-cap stocks in the United States, with tech giants leading the way. About a quarter of the total growth recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index came from only eight individuals, including Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Inc., Larry Page, co-founder of Alphabet, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, Inc. However, it is worth noting that this contribution was less than last year when these eight billionaires accounted for 43% of the total growth. At the beginning of the year, Musk was undoubtedly the most prominent name on the global billionaires list. After donating nearly $300 million to Trump's reelection campaign, he became a significant political figure for the first time and spent most of his time in Washington D.C. at the beginning of 2025, leading government cost-cutting efforts. However, ultimately stealing the spotlight was Ellison, not Musk. As the longstanding cloud infrastructure company increased its investment in artificial intelligence, Oracle Corporation's stock price surged, and Ellison briefly surpassed Musk to become the world's richest person in September. Although Oracle Corporation's stock price has since dropped by about 40% from its peak, Ellison made headlines by bidding on Warner Bros. Discovery through his son David Ellison, closing the chapter on this year. The growth was not limited to the United States. As of December 30th, the S&P 500 index had risen by 17%, while the UK's FTSE 100 index rose by 22% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index by 29%, performing even better. Other asset classes performed even better: driven by safe-haven demand, precious metals recorded one of their best years in decades; at the same time, copper and rare earths rose in importance due to their critical political significance, leading to an increase in wealth for major holders like Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart and the Luksic family in Chile by several billion dollars. Before the recent sell-off, cryptocurrencies were also poised to outperform the stock market returns for the year: Bitcoin soared to new highs after Trump's victory and continued to rise after a series of pro-cryptocurrency policies were approved by the government. However, a sharp decline starting in October wiped out all gains and more, severely affecting the wealth of billionaires like the Winklevoss twins, Changpeng Zhao, and Michael Saylor. The following are the annual winners and losers listed by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Winners: Larry Ellison - Net worth: $249.8 billion - Annual growth: $57.7 billion The 81-year-old co-founder of Oracle Corporation has taken on more daily responsibilities within the company and is leading its massive debt-fueled foray into artificial intelligence infrastructure. After the release of a stellar quarterly report related to Oracle Corporation's AI expansion plan on September 10th, Ellison's net worth surged by $89 billion in a single day, the largest single-day net worth increase recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at the time. Ellison has also deployed his wealth in the media sector, personally providing assurance for part of his son David's hostile $108 billion acquisition bid for Warner Bros. Oracle Corporation continues to advance its $500 billion "Stargate" AI infrastructure project and plans to invest in TikTok's US operations, potentially reshaping Ellison's wealth in 2026 and beyond. Elon Musk - Net worth: $622.7 billion - Annual growth: $190.3 billion After becoming the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle, Musk stayed in Washington for most of the spring, where his "Government Efficiency Department" significantly cut federal agency budgets and initiated large-scale layoffs. However, this came at the expense of his wealth, as Tesla, Inc. stock prices plummeted during this period, partly due to consumer backlash sparked by his political activities. Nevertheless, after leaving the White House following a public falling out with Trump, Musk's net worth rebounded. Recent internal share sales at SpaceX made it the most valuable private company globally, pushing his wealth to above $600 billion for the first time. Meanwhile, Tesla, Inc. shareholders approved a new compensation plan that sets a clear path for him to become the world's first trillionaire if he leads the car manufacturer to achieve a series of ambitious performance goals in the coming years. Gina Rinehart - Net worth: $37.7 billion - Annual growth: $12.6 billion In a year when the global focus was on securing critical rare earth mineral supplies, few billionaires benefited more than Australia's richest person. Rinehart has accumulated the largest rare earth asset portfolio outside of China through her privately held Hancock Prospecting company, becoming a key figure in the increasingly tense political struggle over control of these materials vital for technologies ranging from semiconductors to electric vehicles. She also attended events at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and is an investor in Trump Media and Technology Group, a publicly traded company operating the former president's social media platform, "Truth Social." In the three months leading up to June 30th, Rinehart increased her stake by about two-thirds. Donald Trump and Family - Net worth: $6.8 billion - Annual growth: $282 million Since starting his reelection campaign, Trump and his family have been involved in a series of dazzling deals, resulting in unprecedented growth in their wealth in modern presidential history. Over the past 15 months, despite a recent decline, the family's wealth has increased by approximately 70%. On the eve of his second inauguration, Trump and wife Melania promoted meme coins bearing their names, which briefly surged in value before crashing. Nonetheless, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Trump coin still added over $200 million to the family's wealth. Before the 2024 election, Trump and his sons co-founded the cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial. Subsequently, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also became involved in cryptocurrency projects, including the digital currency miner American Bitcoin Corp. One of Trump's largest assets, his stake in Trump Media, saw a substantial increase in value after announcing a merger with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies in December, although it has since fallen more than 70% from its peak in January. The President also scored a victory in August when a $464 million civil fraud fine was overturned on appeal, although the court upheld the finding that he had illegally inflated the value of assets such as Mar-a-Lago. Losers: Manuel Villar - Net worth: $10 billion - Annual loss: $12.6 billion Once the richest person in the Philippines, this billionaire saw his wealth evaporate by over $18 billion in just a few days after his real estate development company Golden MV Holdings Inc. saw its stock plunge by over 80% following a six-month trading halt ending in November. The trading halt was due to Golden MV failing to submit financial reports after disclosing a purchase of land from Villar for $93 million (but later valued at over $230 billion). Earlier this month, Villar also sold all his shares in the water utility company PrimeWater to grocery mogul Lucio Co. PrimeWater was under government investigation in July for possible "irregularities." Bob Pender and Mike Sabel - Net worth: $7 billion each - Annual loss: $17.7 billion each After three years of a downturn in the IPO market, liquefied natural gas supplier Venture Global Inc. went public in January, poised to kick off a big year for new offerings boosted by a business-friendly government and a backlog of deals. As Venture Global prepared for its listing, its co-founders planned to hold nearly $30 billion worth of shares each - the largest energy IPO in over a decade. However, the listing fell short of expectations: lukewarm demand for its stock forced the company to reduce the size of the offering, and disappointing quarterly results and a key arbitration case loss against one of its largest customers, BP p.l.c. Sponsored ADR, led to a more than 70% drop in its stock price. Michael Saylor - Net worth: $3.8 billion - Annual loss: $2.6 billion In the first half of the year, Saylor's company Strategy (MSTR.US) was a darling of the booming cryptocurrency market, which hit historic highs after Trump's victory in November 2024 and continued to rise after a series of pro-cryptocurrency policies were implemented by the government. Strategy pioneered the "crypto treasury company" model, holding billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet and regularly selling additional shares to raise cash for reserves. This model generated substantial returns when Bitcoin hit new highs in early October. However, the situation took a sharp turn afterward, as the decline in Bitcoin's value caused Strategy's stock price to plummet and dragged Saylor's net worth down by nearly $6 billion from its peak.