The world's 500 richest individuals saw their collective fortunes swell by a record $2.2 trillion in 2025, as booming equity markets, cryptocurrencies, and precious metals propelled asset values to unprecedented heights, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This staggering increase pushed their total net worth to $11.9 trillion. The surge was powerfully fueled by Donald Trump's electoral victory at the end of 2024, experiencing only a brief setback in April when tariff fears triggered a market plunge and the largest single-day wealth destruction since the pandemic. The artificial intelligence frenzy continued to bolster U.S. mega-cap stocks, with tech titans leading the charge. Approximately one-quarter of the entire gain recorded by the Bloomberg wealth index came from just eight individuals, including Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Notably, however, this contribution ratio was smaller than the previous year, when these eight billionaires accounted for 43% of the total growth.

At the start of the year, Musk was undoubtedly the most conspicuous name on the global rich list. After donating nearly $300 million to Trump's re-election campaign, he emerged as a significant political figure for the first time and spent much of early 2025 in Washington D.C., spearheading the government's cost-cutting initiatives. Ultimately, however, it was Ellison, not Musk, who stole the spotlight. As the established cloud infrastructure company ramped up its AI investments, Oracle's stock soared, briefly propelling Ellison past Musk to become the world's richest person in September. Although Oracle's share price has since retreated about 40% from its peak, Ellison capped off the year by making headlines for his son David Ellison's Paramount Skydance bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

The growth was not confined to the United States. While the S&P 500 posted a respectable 17% annual gain as of December 30, the UK's FTSE 100 outperformed with a 22% rise, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged an impressive 29%. Other asset classes delivered even stronger returns: precious metals recorded one of their best years in decades, driven by safe-haven demand; concurrently, copper and rare earths ascended due to their critical geopolitical importance, adding billions to the fortunes of major holders like Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chile's Luksic family.

Cryptocurrencies, before their recent sell-off, were also on track to surpass stock market returns for the year: Bitcoin skyrocketed to a record high following Trump's victory and extended its rally after the administration approved a series of pro-crypto policies. However, a sharp downturn beginning in October erased all those gains and more, severely impacting the wealth of billionaires including the Winklevoss twins, Changpeng Zhao, and Michael Saylor.

The following are the year's biggest winners and losers according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index:

Winner: Larry Ellison * Net Worth: $249.8 Billion * Annual Growth: $57.7 Billion The 81-year-old Oracle co-founder is taking on more day-to-day responsibilities within the company and leading its costly, debt-fueled charge into AI infrastructure. Following a stellar quarterly earnings report related to Oracle's AI expansion plans on September 10, Ellison's net worth surged by $89 billion in a single day, the largest single-day net worth increase recorded by the Bloomberg index at that time. Ellison also deployed his wealth in the media sector, personally guaranteeing the equity portion of his son David's $108 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros. Oracle's continued push to lead the $500 billion "Stargate" AI infrastructure project and its plans to take a stake in TikTok's U.S. operations could continue to reshape Ellison's fortune in 2026 and beyond.

Winner: Elon Musk * Net Worth: $622.7 Billion * Annual Growth: $190.3 Billion After becoming the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle, Musk spent much of the spring in Washington, where his "Department of Government Efficiency" slashed funding for federal agencies and initiated massive layoffs. This came at a cost to his wealth, as Tesla's stock suffered significant losses during this period, partly due to consumer backlash against his political activities. However, Musk's net worth rebounded after he left the White House following a public falling-out with Trump. A recent internal share sale by SpaceX cemented its status as the world's most valuable private company and pushed his wealth above $600 billion for the first time. Meanwhile, Tesla shareholders voted to approve a new compensation package, giving him a clear path to become the world's first trillionaire if he leads the automaker to achieve a series of ambitious performance targets in the coming years.

Winner: Gina Rinehart * Net Worth: $37.7 Billion * Annual Growth: $12.6 Billion This year, amid a global focus on securing supplies of critical rare earth minerals, few billionaires benefited more than Australia's richest person. Primarily through her privately held Hancock Prospecting, Rinehart has amassed the largest portfolio of rare earth assets outside of China, becoming a key figure in the intensifying geopolitical struggle for control over these materials, which are vital for technologies from semiconductors to electric vehicles. She also attended a Trump event at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and is an investor in Trump Media & Technology Group, the public company operating the former president's social media platform, Truth Social. In the three months ending June 30, Rinehart increased her stake size by about two-thirds.

Winner: Donald Trump & Family * Net Worth: $6.8 Billion * Annual Growth: $282 Million Since beginning his re-election campaign, Trump and his family have engaged in a dizzying array of deals, with a scale of wealth accumulation unprecedented in modern presidential history. Over the past 15 months, even after recent declines, the family's fortune has grown by approximately 70%. On the eve of his second inauguration, Trump and his wife Melania promoted a pair of meme coins bearing their names, which soared briefly in value before crashing. Nonetheless, according to the Bloomberg index, Trump coins still added over $200 million to the family's wealth. Trump also co-founded the crypto platform World Liberty Financial just weeks before the 2024 election. Subsequently, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have also ventured into crypto projects, including digital currency miner American Bitcoin Corp. One of Trump's largest assets, his stake in Trump Media, saw its value jump in December after announcing a merger with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies, although it remains down over 70% from its January peak. The president also scored a victory in August when a $464 million civil fraud penalty was overturned on appeal, although the court upheld the finding that he had broken the law by inflating the value of assets like Mar-a-Lago.

Loser: Manuel Villar * Net Worth: $10.0 Billion * Annual Loss: $12.6 Billion The one-time richest person in the Philippines saw over $18 billion evaporate from his fortune in a matter of days after shares of his real estate development firm, Golden MV Holdings Inc., plunged more than 80% following the end of a six-month trading suspension in November. The suspension was triggered by Golden MV's failure to submit financial reports after disclosing a land purchase from Villar for $93 million, which it subsequently revalued at over $23 billion. Earlier this month, Villar also sold his entire stake in water utility PrimeWater to grocery magnate Lucio Co. PrimeWater had been under government investigation in July for potential "irregularities."

Losers: Bob Pender & Mike Sabel * Net Worth: $7.0 Billion Each * Annual Loss: $17.7 Billion Each After three sluggish years for the IPO market, liquefied natural gas supplier Venture Global Inc. went public in January, raising hopes that a pro-business government and a large backlog of deals would kickstart a banner year for new listings. As Venture Global prepared for its debut, the co-founders were each poised to hold stakes worth nearly $30 billion, marking what would have been the largest energy IPO in over a decade. The listing, however, ultimately fell short of expectations: tepid demand for its shares forced the company to scale back the offering size, while disappointing quarterly results and a loss in a critical arbitration case with one of its largest customers, BP, sent its stock price down over 70% since then.

Loser: Michael Saylor * Net Worth: $3.8 Billion * Annual Loss: $2.6 Billion In the first half of the year, Saylor's Strategy was a darling of the booming cryptocurrency market, which climbed to record highs after Trump's November 2024 victory and continued its ascent with a series of pro-crypto government policies. Strategy pioneered the "crypto treasury company" model, holding billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet and regularly selling additional stock to raise cash for increasing its reserves. This model generated enormous returns as Bitcoin hit new highs in early October. The situation, however, reversed sharply thereafter; a decline in Bitcoin's value halved Strategy's stock price, dragging Saylor's net worth down nearly $6 billion from its peak.