In 2025, the world’s 500 richest people increased their net worth by $2.2 trillion. Of those 500 individuals, eight billionaires accounted for a quarter of the gains, in some cases doubling or tripling their net worth. Who are these billionaires, and why do the rich just keep getting richer? Here are some of this year’s financial winners and the drivers behind their increase in wealth.
Elon Musk
Secure in his position as the world’s richest man, Elon Musk added $194 billion to his net worth in 2025. His total net worth increased to almost $630 billion.
Beginning the year as Trump’s right-hand man, their relationship rapidly deteriorated, forcing Musk out of the White House in May. Despite federal feuds and consumer protests, Musk continued to gain financially. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth went up by roughly 45% in 2025. His total net worth is more than double that of the next richest person on the list, Google co-founder Larry Page.
After Trump and Musk’s apparent reconciliation at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, Tesla and SpaceX stocks saw significant increases. However, the real reason behind Elon Musk’s skyrocketing wealth is simple: artificial intelligence.
Musk was able to convince his shareholders that the AI revolution was coming, with the future of Tesla hinging on humanoid robots and self-driving taxis. Stocks spiked in December after human safety monitors were removed from the company’s Robotaxi service for the first time, largely contributing to this significant increase in wealth.
Musk’s other companies benefited from the AI revolution as well, with xAI reaching a valuation of $200 billion and SpaceX valued at $800 billion. Nevertheless, Musk’s closely intertwined empire could face challenges if the AI hype were to end abruptly.
Larry Page
In 2025, Google’s co-founder Larry Page surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, becoming the second richest man in the world. He added $101 billion to his net worth in 2025, making his current net worth $284 billion.
The reason behind Page’s wealth increase? Artificial intelligence. When Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., announced its Gemini 3 AI model in November, Alphabet’s stock price surged 6%. With a 3.2% stake in Alphabet, Page’s net worth jumped $7.6 billion immediately.
Since April, Alphabet’s stock has grown 102%. The company delivered its first-ever $100 billion quarter in Q3. Google Cloud also saw a jump in revenue following the adoption of its AI stack, rising to $15.2 billion.
Jeff Bezos
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos currently ranks third on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, with a total net worth of $268 billion. Starting the year with $239 billion, Bezos can thank AI as well for his increased wealth in 2025.
After OpenAI signed a $38 billion cloud computing deal with Amazon, Bezos’ net worth increased by $9.8 billion. It grew a further $19.4 billion in the same week after Amazon reported $180.2 billion in revenue.
Larry Ellison
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison had the single best day in 2025, gaining $89 billion on September 10. His net worth at the end of the year reached $249.8 billion, following an increase of $57.7 billion.
Ellison owns around 40% of Oracle’s shares. On September 9, Oracle released its impressive quarterly earnings report, leading to an increase in both the company’s stock and Ellison’s net worth. The software company’s stock surged again by 36% after signing a $300 billion deal with OpenAI to construct AI data centers in the U.S.
Sergey Brin
Larry Page’s partner at Alphabet, Sergey Brin, has a current net worth of $264 billion, up $92 billion in 2025. When Alphabet announced Gemini 3, Brin’s net worth increased by $7 billion due to his 2.9% equity stake.
Gemini 3 aims to compete with OpenAI and DeepSeek, and Apple has chosen Gemini as the AI model powering its iconic Siri.
Jensen Huang
Since AI is a significant driving factor for wealth, it’s no shock that the CEO of the world’s leader in chip manufacturing, Nvidia, benefited.
In July, Nvidia became the first $4 trillion company. The net worth of Jensen Huang, the company CEO who owns around 3.5% of Nvidia’s stock, increased by $25 billion in July and by $42 million by the end of the year. He currently ranks 9th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $153 billion.
Gina Rinehart
Australian heiress and businesswoman Gina Rinehart saw her net worth nearly triple in 2025, increasing from $12.6 billion to $37.7 billion. She currently has the world’s largest rare-earth portfolio outside China. Owning stakes in four rare-earth companies, Rinehart has increased her personal wealth while positioning herself in a significant role in the geopolitical struggle for control of these minerals.
While Rinehart’s gains are not strictly tied to the AI boom, rare earth materials are. AI technologies cannot be built without lithium, cobalt, and other critical minerals.
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The Bottom Line
The race for artificial intelligence has lined the pockets of many billionaires. Jeff Bezos has described AI as being caught in an “industrial bubble.” He went on to say, “Investors have a hard time in the middle of this excitement, distinguishing between the good ideas and the bad ideas. And that’s also probably happening today.”
While the development of AI has had a significant impact on markets and the personal finances of the world’s richest, the bubble could pop at any moment.
Meanwhile, the disparity between the rich and the poor has only increased. Oxfam, a global organization focused on fighting inequalities, claimed that the $2.2 trillion in financial growth of the top 1% would have the potential to bring 3.8 billion people out of poverty.
At the G20 Summit in South Africa this November, the “G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality” identified an “inequality emergency.” They stated that “the richest 1% have captured 41 cents of every new dollar of wealth created by the global economy, while the bottom half of humanity got just a single cent in the dollar” since 2000.
An Oxfam report titled “UNEQUAL: The rise of a new American oligarchy and the agenda we need” outlines the growing inequalities in the United States. According to the report, the richest 0.0001% control a greater share of wealth than in the Gilded Age, an era known for lavish wealth and political corruption. While the richest 1% own 49.9% of the stock market, 40% of the U.S. population is considered poor or low-income.
Amitabh Behar, the organisation’s international executive director, said:
“Inequality is a deliberate policy choice. Despite record wealth at the top, public wealth is stagnating, even declining, and debt distress is growing.”
As AI continues to boom, the billionaires will continue to flourish. While the rich get richer, inequalities will grow as well.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Dooder
