Tech billionaires hold 36% of the total wealth of the world's richest people — Bloomberg

Tech billionaires now collectively hold a fortune of $4.6 trillion—that’s 36% of the total wealth of the world’s 500 richest people, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. However, tech entrepreneurs account for only about one-fifth of the top 500.

In the nine months since the start of the year, the combined wealth of approximately 100 tech billionaires has grown by $845 billion—a record increase since records began, according to Bloomberg. During the same period, billionaires who made their fortunes outside the tech sector lost a combined $62 billion.

The bulk of the gains went to the wealthiest individuals. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, increased his net worth by $310 billion from the beginning of the year through the end of September—that’s about 40% of the total capital gains of the top 500. After his space company SpaceX merged with the AI company xAI and went public, Musk briefly became the first trillionaire in history.

Currently, nine out of the ten richest people in the world owe their fortunes to American technology companies. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell saw his net worth increase by 81%, to $254 billion, amid a sharp rise in sales at the company’s data center division. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg added $23 billion to his fortune after the company’s stock rose 27% in September following the launch of its new personal AI assistant, Muse.

The combined net worth of the world’s 500 richest people peaked at $13.4 trillion in mid-June, but then fell by 6%—to $12.6 trillion—amid a general market slowdown and growing doubts about the sustainability of some of the largest AI projects.

One of the most notable examples is Oracle founder Larry Ellison. In September 2025, he briefly became the richest person in the world, increasing his fortune by $89 billion in a single day after Oracle announced explosive growth in its cloud AI business and a $300 billion deal with OpenAI. A year later, Ellison’s net worth had fallen by $196 billion, and Oracle’s credit default swaps are trading near record highs: investors are concerned about the scale of the loans needed to finance the construction of AI infrastructure.

The growing fortunes of the wealthiest businesspeople have already sparked a debate about raising taxes on the ultra-rich. In November, California residents will vote on whether to impose a wealth tax on the state’s billionaires. Washington, New York, Illinois, and Rhode Island are also considering similar measures.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor