Ellison fell to No. 3 richest in the world from No. 2 at the start of December. Elon Musk kicks off the new year not only as the world’s richest person, but also the only billionaire Forbes has tracked in nearly four decades to be worth more than $400 billion. Elon Musk kicks off 2025 as the world’s richest person—and the only billionaire to date worth more than $400 billion. As we progress through the year, market fluctuations, political developments, and technological breakthroughs will play a crucial role in determining the billionaire leaderboard. Stay tuned as we continue to cover the world of wealth, finance, and high-net-worth individuals at ImpactWealth.Org. His wealth experienced an unprecedented $91 billion increase since December 2024, fueled by SpaceX’s private valuation boom.
Top 20 Billionaires: A Key Contributor to Wealth Growth
Michael Bloomberg is an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., a global financial data and media company. Michael Bloomberg began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal.
For daily updated net worths of all 2,640 billionaires, check out our real-time billionaires rankings. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, is the ninth wealthiest person globally and the richest individual in Europe with a net worth of $151 billion. His fortune stems from his 47% stake in LVMH, which owns over 75 distinguished brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Moët & Chandon. Larry Ellison has seen his wealth surge dramatically in 2025, briefly overtaking Elon Musk as the world’s richest person following Oracle’s exceptional quarterly earnings report in September.
In January 2013 it was announced that he had bid to take Dell Inc. private for $24.4 bn in the biggest management buyout since the Great Recession. Warren Buffett is renowned as one of the world’s most successful investors and serves as chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is known for his value investing approach, which involves identifying undervalued companies with strong potential for growth. Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. He has been referred to as the “Oracle” or “Sage” of Omaha by global media. Ballmer’s wealth primarily comes from his Microsoft stock, as he joined the company early on and held a significant number of shares.
#14 Sergey Brin
Until Musk receives those options, Forbes will continue to discount the Tesla options from the pay package by 50%. The global wealth landscape continues to evolve, with the world’s top billionaires accumulating staggering fortunes in 2025. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List 2025, the ten richest individuals collectively hold a net worth exceeding $1.9 trillion, marking an extraordinary financial milestone. Amancio Ortega is the founder of Inditex, the parent company of Zara, one of the world’s largest fashion retailers.
Charles Koch Net Worth
Together, the world’s 10 richest people are worth $1.9 trillion, up from $1.8 trillion on December 1. Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Huang joins the top 10 richest for the first time at the start of the month. He’s ranked No. 10 and worth an estimated $118 billion, mostly due to his stake in the chip designer, whose shares rose 171% in 2024. Nvidia ended the year with a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion, making it More Valuable than Microsoft (but not as valuable as Apple).
Zhong Shanshan is the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water company that listed its shares in Hong Kong in 2020. However, once the dotcom bubble burst the new rich saw their fortunes disappear. Billionaires’ fortunes were hit even harder by the Great Recession; 2009 was the first time in five years that the world had a net loss in the number of billionaires. The strong performance of the financial markets and global economic recovery have erased financial assets losses. Most of the richest people in the world saw their fortunes soar in the early 2010s. After the dot-com bubble started to collapse in 2000, his wealth dropped to $60 billion, although he remained at the top of the list.
Notably, two-thirds of these billionaires are wealthier than they were a year ago, with only one-quarter experiencing a decline. Most of Brad Jacobs’ fortune comes from XPO Logistics, a commercial trucking company that delivers goods to warehouses and distribution centers. Rick Cohen is owner and executive chairman of C&S Wholesale Grocers, the nation’s largest grocery wholesaler, with some $35 billion in annual revenue.
A record number of 290 people joined the list for the first time, of whom 25 percent hailed from China, which produced a world-leading 71 newcomers. The United States came in second, with 57; followed by India, with 28; and Germany, with 23. Russia was placed behind China, Germany and India by the number of billionaires. Self-made billionaires made up the largest number of people on the list with 1,191 positions (over 65 percent), while just top 100 richest person in world 230 (under 13 percent) had wealth through inheritance. The number of billionaires who inherited a portion but were still working to increase their fortunes is 405. In the 37th annual Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, the list included 2,640 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.2 trillion, down 28 members and $500 billion from 2022.
Over five decades, Philip Anschutz has built fortunes in oil, railroads, telecom, real estate and entertainment.
Elon Musk, with an estimated net worth of $393.1 billion, remains the world’s richest person in July 2025; however, his net worth dropped by an estimated $16 billion to $407 billion in June. The cumulative wealth of India’s 100 billionaires increased more than $300 billion to $1.1 trillion, thanks to the stock market boom of the last year. 83 billionaires saw their wealth increase, and only three—Dhingras of Berger Paints, Joy Alukkas, and Piramal Enterprises’ Ajay Piramal—saw it decrease. Mukesh Ambani’s net worth waltzed past the $100 billion mark, perching him comfortably at the top spot with $119.5 billion net worth, Gautam Adani a close second with $116 billion net worth. Many billionaires can borrow against their wealth, which allows them to avoid selling stock and deferring taxes on unrealized capital gains.
Since stock prices fluctuate rapidly, an individual’s true wealth and ranking at the time of publication may vary from their situation when the list was compiled. Bloomberg calculates net worth using a combination of public data and financial modelling. Public company shares are valued at the latest New York market close and converted to USD using current exchange rates. Private assets are estimated by comparing similar publicly listed firms, adjusted for debt, liquidity, and control factors. Valuing hedge funds relies on the average market capitalization-to-assets under management ratios of listed equivalents.
#39 Tadashi Yanai & family
Jim Walton has served as its chairman and helped expand its presence in several states. Although he does not hold an executive position at Walmart, he remains a major shareholder and plays a role in shaping the company’s long-term strategy through the Walton family’s influence. Although he stepped down as chairman in 2015, he remains a major shareholder and a member of the Walton family, which collectively controls about half of Walmart’s stock. His influence continues through the family’s involvement in business decisions and long-term strategy. As chairman, he played a role in Walmart’s global expansion, technological upgrades, and acquisitions of competitors. Under his leadership, Walmart strengthened its supply chain, improved logistics, and expanded into e-commerce, positioning itself as the largest retailer in the world.
- Sergey Brin is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page.
- Over the years, he has expanded his wealth through investments in other sectors, including real estate, healthcare, and technology.
- During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.
- Larry Ellison’s net worth is $383 billion, predominantly from his co-founding of Oracle Corporation, a leading enterprise software and database technology company.
- As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company’s electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products.
- Investment activities include publicly traded securities, private equity activities, and real estate.
- Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector.
- He spearheaded advancements in deep learning, AI-driven hardware, and high-performance computing, positioning NVIDIA as a leader in the tech industry.
Though he retired from Microsoft in 2014, Ballmer’s substantial 4% stake in the company continues to grow in value as Microsoft thrives in cloud computing, AI services, and enterprise software. Beyond his Alphabet holdings, Brin has diversified his investments into various technology ventures and scientific research initiatives. He has been particularly interested in longevity research and breakthrough medical technologies, areas where he has made significant philanthropic contributions through the Sergey Brin Family Foundation. Meta’s aggressive investments in AI infrastructure and virtual reality technologies have begun to pay dividends, with new revenue streams emerging from enterprise metaverse applications and advanced AI services. The company’s Reality Labs division, once criticized for burning cash, has shown signs of commercial viability with breakthrough mixed reality products gaining market traction.
During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. Jim Walton is an American businessman, the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and a major shareholder in Walmart. He is the chairman of Arvest Bank, a financial institution owned by the Walton family. James Carr Walton is an American businessman, currently the heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Rob Walton’s net worth exceeds $117bn, primarily due to his ownership stake in Walmart. His wealth grew as the company expanded globally, increasing in revenue and market value.