zeeshan khan
The wealth and influence of the world’s billionaires have always existed but never before. This is especially true in the US, where Donald Trump was inaugurated as the country’s wealthiest leader in January. He is offering the billionaire class greater authority over the government than in the past. The richest person on the earth is his right-hand guy. At least twelve millionaires and their wives are part of his government. Additionally, Trump has the support of other rich executives, including French luxury goods entrepreneur Bernard Arnault and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
But the billionaire windfall is not limited to the United States. Forbes’ annual World’s Billionaires list included a record 3,028 individuals worldwide, 247 more than the previous year. The number of billionaires has surpassed 3,000 for the very first time. They are valued at a record $16.1 trillion, which is $2 trillion higher than they were a year ago and is greater than the combined GDP of all nations except China and the United States. The typical fortune increased by $200 million from 2024 to $5.3 billion now.
The One Hundred Billion Association, the exclusive group at the very top of the list with net worths stretching a dozen numbers, now has three individuals valued in excess of $200 billion for their first time ever. Compared to 14 a year ago and none in 2017, it is an increase. The aggregate net wealth of these 15 centimillionaires is $2.4 trillion, which is greater than the total wealth of the top 1,500 billionaires
Wealth of billionaires
Elon Musk is the most wealthy of them all, with a total assets value of $342 billion. A successful year for Musk’s rocket organization SpaceX and their AI firm xAI (which in turn he merged with his social media massive X just last week) has added $147 billion to his good fortune across the past year, regardless of Musk consuming a lot greater amount of his (already divided) time leading DOGE, Trump’s cost-cutting operation. Even Tesla remains priced higher than it was a year ago, despite the latest protests and a selloff in the stock market. This has given Musk a $126 billion advantage over the next most wealthy individuals and enabled him to retake the title of richest person in the world from Arnault, It has placed him $126 billion ahead of the second richest individual, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, who is ranked No. 2 for the first time with a projected net worth of $216 billion. Jeff Bezos of Amazon ($215 billion) comes in third, while Larry Ellison of Oracle ($192 billion) comes in four. As stocks of his premium business LVMH plummet, Arnault ($178 billion) falls to fifth place, his lowest position because 2017. For this year’s list, Forbes utilized March 7, 2025, price of stocks and currency rates.
Despite an unprecedented 902 billionaire residents, the US continues to lead the world in the number of billionaires. With 516 (which includes Hong Kong), China remains in second place, while India is still in third place with 205. Although individuals of these three nations make up more than half of the list, 76 nations and two partially autonomous territories—including Albanian for the first time—have at least one billionaires. After expelling the Kingdom’s billionaires in 2018 due to a government repression, Forbes also added 15 Saudi nationals this year.
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This year, a total of 288 new people have joined the yearly Billionaires list. This includes well-known people like comedian Jerry Seinfeld ($1.1 billion), music star Bruce Springsteen ($1.2 billion), and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others ($1.1 billion). The billionaires behind numerous well-known food franchises, including Jersey Mike’s, Chipotle, Cava and Zaxby’s; the infamous cryptocurrency kingpin Justin Sun ($8.5 billion); and a number of artificial intelligence billionaires from businesses like Anthropic, CoreWeave, and DeepSeek are also newcomers.
Marilyn Simons ($31 billion), the surviving spouse of hedge fund tycoon Jim Simons, who passed away in May 2024, is the richest newbie of all. In the previous year, 32 billionaires passed away, including him. (A more Israeli industrial tycoon, Stef Wertheimer, is listed since he passed away in late March after we locked him up.)
Only 406 women make up the total number of World’s Billionaires, including Simmons. This is a little increase from 13.3% the previous year. The good fortunes of nearly three-quarters were acquired. Among them is Alice Walton, the inheritor to Walmart ($101 billion), who has surpassed Francoise’s Bettencourt Meyers, the heir to L’Oreal ($81.6 billion), to become the richest woman in the world. The wealthiest of the 113 self-made women in the entire globe, according to Forbes, is Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, a Swiss maritime magnate worth $37.7 billion, whose business this year partnered with BlackRock on a plan to purchase 43 harbors, including two in Panamanian.
A Look at Billionaires
The percentage of people who are self-made, indicating they started or cofounded their business or built their own money instead of inherited it, has increased from 66% in 2024 to 67% overall. Alexander Wang, the 28-year-old cofounder and CEO of Scale Artificial Intelligence ($2 billion), is the youngest ever self-made billionaire.
Only 21 billionaires are 30 years of age or younger, notably Johannes von Baumbach ($5.4 billion), the youngest billionaire in the globe and the 19-year-old heir to a German medicines company. U.S. insurance mogul George Joseph ($1.9 billion), one of four listees to reach the one billion-dollar mark, is the oldest billionaires at age 103. The typical age of a billionaire is sixty-six.
Read More: World’s Billionaires List
Donald Trump has had an improved year than most billionaires, and not just because he regained the president of the United States. He made a highly profitable move into cryptocurrency to add to his wealth collection before returning to the White House. The president’s net worth has more than quadrupled, from roughly $2.3 billion to an anticipated $5.1 billion, as a result of that and the IPO of his Trump Media & Technology Group shortly after Forbes wrapped in its 2024 rankings.
The World’s Billionaires list is a listing of all individuals worldwide who, as of March 7, 2025, Forbes estimates had an estimated wealth of at least $1 billion USD. Since then, some billionaires have become richer or worse; in fact, Forbes discovered three additional billionaires soon after securing this year’s list, and there are undoubtedly more out there. Like the majority of these viewers, we are likewise anticipating how tariffs will affect the world stock market. Check out Forbes’ Real-Time tracking for the most recent rankings every day. We chatted with billionaires on the phone, digitally, or in reality wherever feasible. Additionally, we conducted interviews with their handlers, attorneys, competitors, colleagues, asset managers, and financial advisers. We combed through hundreds of exchange commission and other regulatory papers, court filings, succession documents, and press stories in order to uncover their wealth. We considered various kinds of assets, including real estate, art, yachts, aircraft, ranches, vineyards, jewels, automobile collections, and shares in private as well as public corporations. We took charity contributions or known debt into account. Although we mention money in the live founder’s immediate circle under the founder’s name, we do not include scattered family riches. In some instances, we additionally take into account the money owned by an heir’s close relatives. You will notice “& family” on a person’s profile in both of those instances.
