The five hundred richest people on the planet increased their fortunes by a record $ 2.2 trillion in one year. Such a rapid increase was made possible by a general rally in financial markets - from stocks and cryptocurrencies to precious metals, which significantly increased the value of the assets of the world's richest investors.

This is evidenced by data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is cited by Bloomberg. As a result, the total wealth of the rating participants increased to $ 11.9 trillion. The main catalyst for this growth was Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election at the end of 2024, which increased investor optimism and pushed markets up.

At the same time, the growth was not uniform throughout the year. In April, markets briefly stopped due to concerns about the introduction of new tariffs. That was the time when the largest one-day collapse in the combined wealth of billionaires since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, when a significant part of paper profits temporarily “burned out”.

Big Tech again became the engine of growth. Euphoria around the development of artificial intelligence continued to fuel the quotes of American technology giants. About a quarter of all the index’s profits fell on just eight people, including Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. At the same time, the concentration of profits decreased compared to last year, when these same eight billionaires provided 43% of the total increase.

At the beginning of the year, it was Elon Musk who was the central figure of the list of the richest people in the world. He first showed himself as an influential political player, donating almost $300 million to Donald Trump’s election campaign. Musk spent much of early 2025 in Washington, D.C., leading the administration’s spending cuts.

But toward the end of the year, the spotlight shifted to Larry Ellison. Amid a strong rally in Oracle, which has been heavily investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure, he briefly overtook Musk in September to become the world’s richest person. Although Oracle’s stock has fallen about 40% since its peak, Ellison has remained in the spotlight thanks to his role in the bid by Paramount Skydance Corp., the company run by his son David Ellison, to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

It’s not just American billionaires who have made significant gains. While the S&P 500 is up 17% year-to-date through Dec. 30, Britain’s FTSE 100 has outperformed, up 22%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 29%. Some alternative asset classes have fared even better.

Precious metals have enjoyed one of their best years in decades as investors seek safe havens. Copper and rare earths have established themselves as strategically important commodities, generating billions in profits for big-name owners, including Australian tycoon Gina Rinehart and Chile’s Luksic family.

The cryptocurrency market has also long outperformed stock indexes. Bitcoin hit all-time highs after Trump’s victory and has continued to rise amid the new administration’s crypto-friendly policies. But the massive sell-off that began in October has completely erased those gains and even outweighed them in losses, hitting the fortunes of billionaires like the Winklevoss brothers, Changpeng Zhao, and Michael Saylor hard.