A year of movement among world’s 20 richest, with Elon Musk (almost) untouchable at the top
It has been a year of movement, albeit with no new faces, on the list of the 20 richest people in the world. All those who were on the ranking at the end of 2024 remain, but with positions swapped, especially at the top. And only one of the 20 members has seen their fortune diminish. As such, 2025 can certainly be described as a good year for the billionaires who make up the list, compiled using Bloomberg data updated as of December 26. Once again, tech titans dominate the top spots: Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX; Larry Page, chairman of Google; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon; Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle; Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; and Mark Zuckerberg, of Meta, are the six richest people in the world. Musk remains on the throne for another year, despite briefly losing it. The fortune of the Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO suffered during his time in the Trump administration, a position marked by controversy that ultimately damaged his image and that of his electric car company. The decline in vehicle sales impacted the company’s stock, of which he owns approximately 12.5%.But since leaving the White House, Musk’s fortune has only grown and he is now the first person to surpass $600 billion in wealth. Specifically, he is worth $645 billion, compared to $468 billion last year. This spectacular rise is largely thanks to Tesla’s stock market rebound and the fact that SpaceX — of which he owns around 42%, according to various specialized media outlets — reached $800 billion in its latest valuation a few days ago. It is possible that Musk will soon break the $700 billion barrier and even reach $1 trillion. This year, 75% of Tesla shareholders approved paying its founder a salary of almost $1 trillion in stock to lead the company for the next decade, provided he meets a series of objectives. And there are also plans to take SpaceX public, a listing that could break historical records, both for its magnitude and the anticipation it has generated, and which could further bolster Musk’s coffers.There have been changes in the other positions on the podium. Larry Page now occupies second place, climbing from sixth. The Google co-founder’s fortune has increased from $173.2 billion to $270.1 billion, aided by the tech giant’s strong stock market performance in recent months, especially after the unveiling of the new version of its artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3.0.The third-richest person in the world is Jeff Bezos, who drops one place despite increasing his fortune from $245.9 billion to $254.6 billion. This year, the Amazon founder was the subject of vast news coverage due to his lavish wedding in Venice last summer. In the fall, the company he founded announced the layoff of approximately 14,000 employees from its corporate workforce, after reporting third-quarter results that showed a net profit of $21.187 billion.In fourth place is Larry Ellison, who briefly overtook Musk in September due to the sharp rise in the stock price of Oracle, the company he founded and of which he owns around 40%. In a single day, the firm’s shares surged 36.1% to an all-time high of $328 after it released its growth forecasts for the coming years for its cloud storage business, which will be driven by AI. Ellison’s fortune reached $393 billion at that time, but it has since declined, along with Oracle’s valuation, to $251.4 billion. The tycoon’s name has recently been in the headlines due to the hostile takeover bid launched by Paramount, led by his son David Ellison, for Warner Bros., after the latter reached a sale agreement with Netflix. This battle in the U.S. audiovisual industry is far from over.Google co-founder Sergey Brin climbs from seventh to fifth place, increasing his fortune from $163 billion to $251.1 billion. He is followed by Mark Zuckerberg, who drops three places. The founder of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, saw his fortune rise from $213.4 billion to $235.8 billion.Far from the top spot he once held, Bernard Arnault remains the richest European in the world. The French businessman, who owns almost half of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the world’s largest luxury group, has not seen his fortune shrink this year, unlike in 2024. In 2025, his wealth increased from $176.4 billion to $204.7 billion, thanks to the improved performance of the luxury sector driven by the strength of the U.S. market and the return of Chinese consumers.Eighth place is held by Steve Ballmer with $169.8 billion, up from $151.9 billion last year. The former Microsoft CEO moves up one spot, aided by the tech giant’s strong performance in recent months. In its first fiscal quarter, which begins August 1, Microsoft earned $27.7 billion, a 12.4% increase compared to the same period in 2024.Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia, continues the climb that began in 2024, driven by the development of AI. Although this year’s rise has been more modest, climbing only three places to ninth, compared to a jump of 17 spots in the previous ranking, his fortune has increased from $122.2 billion to $156.2 billion. The tech executive experienced a dark day last January when $20.1 billion of his fortune vanished due to the sharp drop in the stock price of the AI chip company following the emergence of China’s DeepSeek with a seemingly cheaper model. Since then, Nvidia has been recovering, with periods in which its value has doubled, and others in which its shares have suffered somewhat more.Rounding out the top 10 is a familiar face on this list, Warren Buffett, who has held the same position for two years and has been wealthy for most of his life. The 95-year-old investor surprisingly announced in May that he will step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year, during which his fortune has grown from $143.6 billion to $150.7 billion.Michael Dell, founder of the computer company that bears his name, also retains his position at number 11. In 2024, he climbed five places and saw his fortune increase more than this year, rising from $128.5 billion to $141.3 billion. Other regulars on the list are the Walton siblings, heirs to the Walmart empire. Jim is in 12th place with $136.4 billion, while Rob remains at number 14 with $133.7 billion, and Alice at number 15 with $133 billion. Among this family of billionaires, Spain’s richest man, Amancio Ortega, sneaks in at number 13. The founder of Inditex climbs three places, with his fortune rising from $101.7 billion to $135.6 billion. The textile giant, of which the businessman owns 60% of the capital, registered its all-time high on the Spanish Stock Exchange on December 18, reaching a value of €175 billion ($205 billion), after presenting third-quarter results that exceeded all expectations.Bill Gates has fallen from 8th to 16th place, the only billionaire on the list to see his fortune decline, from $161.9 billion last year to $117.8 billion now. His earnings no longer depend on Microsoft, the company he founded and in which he owns only 1%, but rather on Cascade Investment, through which he holds stakes in other publicly traded companies, as well as in real estate and energy assets.Meanwhile, Carlos Slim climbed one spot, from 18th to 17th, in a year in which his fortune increased from $81.9 billion to $112 billion. With these figures, the Mexican telecommunications magnate and owner of América Móvil is the richest person in Latin America. Mukesh Ambani, the largest shareholder in India’s Reliance Industries, dropped one place, despite his fortune growing from $91.3 billion to $107.2 billion in a year. Conversely, Françoise Bettencourt, the French heiress to the shares her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, held in the L’Oréal group, rose one position to 19th. Her fortune increased from $74.6 billion to $92.2 billion.The ranking concludes with a figure who reached the podium in 2022. When Gautam Adani, founder of the Indian firm Adani Group, was at the pinnacle of the world’s wealthiest with $121.1 billion, the investment firm Hindenburg Research accused him of accounting fraud and manipulating the stock prices of his subsidiaries. Although an investigation by the Supreme Court of India concluded that the accusations were not credible, the businessman’s fortune never recovered to similar levels. It now stands at $84.5 billion, compared to $76.9 billion last year.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
Comments (0)