The billionaires club has never been bigger—or richer. Here’s who’s up, who’s down, who’s off the list and why it matters more than ever.
The world’s billionaires have always been rich and powerful—but never more than now. That’s particularly true in the United States, where Donald Trump was sworn in (again) as America’s billionaire-in-chief in January. This time around, he’s giving the billionaire class more control over the government than ever before. His right-hand man is the planet’s richest person. His administration includes at least ten billionaires and billionaire spouses. And scores of billionaire execs—from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to French luxury goods kingpin Bernard Arnault—have lined up behind Trump.
The billionaire bonanza extends beyond the U.S., however. A record 3,028 people around the globe make Forbes’ annual World’s Billionaires list this year, 247 more than last year. It’s the first time the billionaire population has crossed the 3,000 mark. They’re worth a record $16.1 trillion in all, $2 trillion more than a year ago and more than the GDP of every country in the world besides the U.S. and China. The average fortune now stands at $5.3 billion, up $200 million from 2024.
There are now three people worth more than $200 billion for the first time ever, part of the record 15 members of the $100 Billion Club, the elite group at the very top of the list whose net worths span a dozen digits. That’s up from 14 a year ago and none in 2017. These 15 centibillionaires are worth $2.4 trillion—more than the bottom 1,500 billionaires combined.
The richest of all is Elon Musk, worth an estimated $342 billion. Despite spending a lot more of his (already divided) time heading DOGE, Trump’s cost-cutting operation, Musk has added $147 billion to his fortune over the past year, thanks to a blockbuster year for his rocket company SpaceX and his AI firm xAI (which he merged with his social media giant X last week). Even Tesla, despite recent protests and a stock market selloff, is trading higher than a year ago. That’s allowed Musk to reclaim the title of world’s richest person from Arnault, and has given him a $126 billion lead over the next richest person: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (estimated net worth: $216 billion), who ranks No. 2 for the first time. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($215 billion) ranks No. 3 and Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($192 billion) ranks fourth. Arnault ($178 billion), meanwhile, slides down to fifth, his lowest rank since 2017, amid a slump in shares of his luxury conglomerate LVMH. Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 7, 2025 for this year’s ranking.
The United States, with a record 902 billionaire citizens, continues to boast more billionaires than anywhere else on the planet. China, with 516 (including Hong Kong), remains second and India, with 205, still ranks third. More than 50% of all listees are citizens of one of these three countries, but altogether 76 nations and two semi-autonomous territories have at least one billionaire, including Albania for the first time ever. Forbes also added 15 from Saudi Arabia this year, after removing the Kingdom’s billionaires in 2018 following a government crackdown.
In all, 288 fresh faces join the annual Billionaires ranking this year. That includes celebrities such as rockstar Bruce Springsteen ($1.2 billion), movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger ($1.1 billion) and comedian Jerry Seinfeld ($1.1 billion). Also new: controversial crypto kingpin Justin Sun ($8.5 billion), several artificial intelligence tycoons from such companies as Anthropic, CoreWeave and DeepSeek, and the moguls behind several notable food chains: Cava, Chipotle, Jersey Mike’s and Zaxby’s.
The wealthiest newcomer of all is Marilyn Simons ($31 billion), the widow of hedge fund legend Jim Simons, who died in May 2024. He was one of 32 billionaires who died over the past year. (Another, Israeli industrial titan Stef Wertheimer, died in late March, after we locked in the list, and thus appears in the ranks.)
Simons is one of just 406 women among the World’s Billionaires, only 13.4% of the list, up a hair from 13.3% last year. Nearly three-quarters inherited their fortunes. That includes the world’s richest woman, Walmart heir Alice Walton ($101 billion), who has overtaken French L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers ($81.6 billion) for the top spot among women. Forbes found just 113 self-made women around the globe, the richest of whom is Swiss shipping tycoon Rafaela Aponte-Diamant ($37.7 billion) whose company teamed with BlackRock this year on a plan to buy 43 ports, including two in Panama.
Overall, 67% of the list is self-made—meaning they founded or cofounded their company or established their own fortune, rather than inheriting it—up from 66% in 2024. The youngest self-made billionaire is Scale AI cofounder and CEO Alexandr Wang ($2 billion), who is 28.
Wang is one of just 21 billionaires who are 30 or younger, including Johannes von Baumbach ($5.4 billion), a 19-year-old heir to a German pharmaceuticals fortune, a newcomer who is now the world’s youngest billionaire. The oldest billionaire, at age 103, is U.S. insurance tycoon George Joseph ($1.9 billion), one of four listees who have hit the century mark. The average billionaire is 66 years old.
Few billionaires have had a better year than Donald Trump—and not just because he retook the U.S. presidency. Before moving back into the White House, he padded his cash pile with a very lucrative move into crypto. Between that and his Trump Media & Technology Group going public just after Forbes locked in its 2024 rankings, the president’s net worth has more than doubled, from an estimated $2.3 billion to an estimated $5.1 billion.
A small handful of billionaires, relatively speaking, didn’t fare so well. A total of 107 people who were on the 2024 ranking are simply no longer rich enough to make the cut. Notable drop-offs include Lisa Su, who is the CEO of semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Sara Liu, cofounder of embattled server and storage maker Supermicro; and Nicholas Puech, an heir to the Hermès luxury goods empire who says his fortune has vanished.
The World’s Billionaires list is a ranking of every person on the planet who Forbes estimated to have a net worth of $1 billion U.S. dollars or more as of March 7, 2025. Some billionaires have gotten richer or poorer in the time since; indeed, Forbes found three more billionaires shortly after locking in this year’s list and there are likely more out there. Like most of our readers, we’re also bracing for the impact of tariffs on the global stock market. For daily updated rankings, see Forbes’ Real-Time tracker. When possible, we met with billionaires in person or spoke with them virtually or by phone. We also interviewed their employees, handlers, asset managers and financial advisors, rivals, peers and attorneys. Uncovering their fortunes required us to pore over thousands of Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory documents, court filings, probate records and news articles. We took into account all types of assets: stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art, yachts, planes, ranches, vineyards, jewelry, car collections and more. We factored in known debt and charitable giving. We exclude dispersed family fortunes, though we list wealth belonging to the immediate family of the living founder of a fortune under the founder’s name. In some cases, we also include wealth held by the immediate family member of an heir. In either of those instances, you’ll see “& family” in a person’s listing. For the full list of the world’s 3,028 billionaires, see here.
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