Ellison, Musk, Trump & more: World’s richest 500 added $2.2tn to their wealth in 2025
SOURCE:Times of India|BY:TOI BUSINESS DESK
The world’s 500 richest individuals added a record $2.2 trillion to their wealth as strong rallies across stocks, cryptocurrencies and precious metals lifted total net worth to $11.9 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
Technology billionaires were at the forefront of the advance, with sustained enthusiasm around artificial intelligence driving gains in US mega-cap shares. (AI image)
Did you know that the world’s wealthiest and richest 500 people added a whopping $2.2 trillion to their wealth in 2025? The rise was a result of powerful rallies across global markets ranging from stocks and digital assets to precious metals, data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows.
As a result, the aggregate net worth expanded to $11.9 trillion in 2025.Technology billionaires were at the forefront of the advance, with sustained enthusiasm around artificial intelligence driving gains in US mega-cap shares. Roughly 25% of the total increase tracked by Bloomberg’s index was generated by just eight people. Among them were Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Even so, their share of overall gains was smaller than a year earlier, when the same group accounted for 43%.This surge got a booster shot after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election in late 2024, while concerns over tariffs caused only a brief interruption. In April, a sharp market selloff triggered the largest single-day erosion of billionaire wealth since the pandemic, but the setback proved temporary.At the start of the year, Musk stood clearly apart as the most prominent figure among the ultra-wealthy.
He stepped into the political arena in a significant way after contributing close to $300 million to Trump’s re-election bid and spent much of early 2025 in Washington, DC, leading efforts aimed at reducing government spending.By year-end, however, it was Ellison who emerged as the standout. A sharp rise in Oracle’s share price, driven by increased investment in artificial intelligence by the cloud computing firm, briefly pushed him past Musk in September to become the world’s richest person.
Although Oracle stock later retreated by about 40% from its highs, Ellison remained in the spotlight due to his role in the Paramount Skydance Corp.
offer, led by his son David Ellison, to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.The wealth expansion was not limited to the US. While the S&P 500 Index gained 17% for the year through December 30, it lagged behind a 22% rise in Britain’s FTSE 100 and a 29% advance in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index.Performance across other asset classes was even stronger. Precious metals delivered one of their strongest showings in decades as investors sought safety, while copper and rare earths gained strategic importance amid geopolitical tensions. This boosted the fortunes of major commodity holders such as Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart and Chile’s Luksic family by billions of dollars.Cryptocurrencies also appeared set to outperform equities for much of the year.
Bitcoin jumped to record levels following Trump’s election victory and extended its rally after the administration rolled out policies seen as supportive of the sector. That momentum reversed sharply in October, when a steep selloff erased all earlier gains and more, sharply cutting the wealth of crypto-focused billionaires including the Winklevoss twins, Changpeng Zhao and Michael Saylor.Here is a list of 2025’s biggest winners and losers, as prepared by Bloomberg:Larry Ellison - Winner
Net worth: $249.8 billion
Annual increase: $57.7 billion
At 81, the Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has stepped more deeply into the company’s daily operations, steering its aggressive and highly leveraged expansion into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Ellison’s personal wealth jumped sharply on September 10, rising by $89 billion in a single day after Oracle posted blockbuster quarterly results linked to its AI strategy. This marked the largest one-day increase in net worth recorded by Bloomberg’s wealth index at the time.Beyond technology, Ellison has been channeling capital into the media space, including personally backing the equity component of his son David’s $108 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros.
Oracle’s ambition to play a central role in the proposed $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure initiative, along with plans to take an ownership stake in TikTok’s US business, could further influence Ellison’s fortune well into 2026 and beyond.Elon Musk - Winner
Net worth: $622.7 billion
Annual increase: $190.3 billion
Elon Musk emerged as the largest political contributor during the 2024 election cycle and spent much of the spring in Washington, where his Department of Government Efficiency drove deep budget cuts and large-scale workforce reductions across federal agencies.
That period weighed on his personal wealth, as Tesla shares came under pressure, partly reflecting consumer backlash against his political involvement.His fortunes improved after he exited the White House following a very public rift with Donald Trump. A recent insider transaction at SpaceX lifted the company’s valuation to the highest level ever for a private firm, pushing Musk’s net worth past the $600 billion mark for the first time.
Separately, Tesla investors approved a revised pay package that positions him to potentially become the world’s first trillionaire, provided the electric vehicle maker achieves an ambitious set of performance milestones in the years ahead.Gina Rinehart - Winner
Net worth: $37.7 billion
Annual increase: $12.6 billion
Australia’s wealthiest individual emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global push to secure access to strategically critical rare-earth minerals.
Through her privately owned firm Hancock Prospecting, Rinehart has built the largest rare-earth holdings outside China, placing her at the center of an intensifying geopolitical contest over materials that underpin industries such as semiconductors and electric vehicles.Her influence has extended beyond mining. Rinehart has appeared at events hosted at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and holds an investment in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.,
the listed company that operates the social media platform Truth Social. In the three months through June 30, she expanded that stake by roughly two-thirds.Donald Trump and family - Winner
Net worth: $6.8 billion
Annual increase: $282 million
Since launching his campaign for a second term, Donald Trump and his family have pursued a wide range of commercial ventures that have significantly boosted their collective wealth, reaching levels rarely seen in modern US political history.
Despite a recent pullback, the family’s fortune has risen by around 70% over the past 15 months.In the period leading up to Trump’s second inauguration, he and First Lady Melania Trump promoted two memecoins branded with their names. While those tokens initially surged before retreating, the Trump-branded coin alone has contributed more than $200 million to the family’s net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Weeks before the 2024 election, Trump also helped launch the crypto platform World Liberty Financial alongside his sons.
Since then, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have expanded into digital asset ventures, including cryptocurrency mining company American Bitcoin Corp.A major holding for the family, their stake in Trump Media, jumped in value in December following the announcement of a merger with nuclear fusion firm TAE Technologies, though the shares remain more than 70% below their January peak.
Trump also notched a legal win in August when an appeals court overturned a $464 million civil fraud penalty, even as it upheld findings that he had violated the law by overstating the value of assets such as the Mar-a-Lago resort.Manuel Villar - Loser
Net worth: $10 billion
Annual decline: $12.6 billion
Manuel Villar, who previously held the title of the Philippines’ richest individual, suffered a dramatic erosion of wealth after shares of his real estate firm, Golden MV Holdings Inc.,
collapsed shortly after trading resumed in November. The stock fell by more than 80% within days of the end of a six-month suspension, wiping out over $18 billion from Villar’s fortune.The trading halt had been imposed when Golden MV failed to submit financial statements following disclosures that the company had purchased a parcel of land from Villar for $93 million, only to later mark its value at over $23 billion.
Adding to the pressure, Villar earlier this month exited his entire holding in water utility PrimeWater, selling the stake to retail magnate Lucio Co. PrimeWater had come under government scrutiny in July over alleged “irregularities.
”Bob Pender and Mike Sabel - Loser
Net worth: $7 billion each
Annual decline: $17.7 billion each
The long-anticipated revival in US initial public offerings suffered a setback with the underwhelming market debut of liquefied natural gas exporter Venture Global Inc. After several slow years for new listings, the company’s January IPO was widely seen as a potential catalyst for a stronger issuance pipeline, supported by a pro-business administration and a sizable backlog of deals.Ahead of the flotation, co-founders Bob Pender and Mike Sabel were expected to each hold equity stakes valued at close to $30 billion, as Venture Global was positioned to deliver the largest energy IPO in more than a decade. That optimism quickly faded. Weak investor appetite forced the company to scale back the offering, and the share price has since plunged more than 70%, weighed down by underwhelming quarterly results and the loss of a major arbitration case against BP Plc, one of its largest customers.Michael Saylor - Loser
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Annual decline: $2.6 billion
For much of the first half of the year, Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. stood out as a major beneficiary of the cryptocurrency boom. Digital assets surged to record levels following Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024 and extended those gains as the new administration implemented a series of policies supportive of the sector. Strategy was at the forefront of the so-called crypto treasury approach, accumulating large quantities of Bitcoin on its balance sheet while repeatedly issuing equity to fund further purchases.That strategy delivered outsized gains through early October, when Bitcoin reached new peaks. Momentum then reversed. A sharp pullback in the cryptocurrency triggered a steep sell-off in Strategy’s shares, which fell by more than 50%, erasing nearly $6 billion from Saylor’s wealth compared with its earlier high.Wang Xing - Loser
Net worth: $7.9 billion
Annual decline: $3.5 billion
Wang Xing, co-founder and chairman of Meituan, experienced a significant drop in personal wealth during 2025 as pressures mounted on China’s leading food delivery company.
His net worth slid close to 31% after Meituan reported its first quarterly loss in nearly three years in November.The setback came despite a strong year for Chinese equities, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 18%. Meituan has been weighed down by softer domestic consumer spending and intensifying competition from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. To counter slowing growth at home, the company has accelerated its push into international markets, recently expanding operations into Brazil and the Middle East.
