Who Is the Richest Person in the World in 2025

 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: the top of the wealth ladder is shifting beneath our feet. In 2025, the title of richest man in the world is held by Elon Musk, thanks to his control of Tesla, SpaceX, his X-platform, and his AI push via xAI. According to one list, his net worth hit roughly US$485 billion in October.

Across the board, the list of the richest people in the world right now reads like a tech-and luxury powerhouse list: Tesla and SpaceX, luxury goods houses, cloud software pioneers, and AI chip makers. 

Every major name you drop – from Musk to Bernard Arnault to Mark Zuckerberg to Jensen Huang – has their fortune tightly linked to a company that either changed an industry or became THE industry.

These numbers are pulled from real-time indexes like the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes, but they still shift from day to day (stock moves, company buyouts, asset valuations).

So: here are the ten men who (for now) sit at the top of global wealth, with their most recent verified net worths, what drives their fortunes, and what to watch next.

 

The 10 richest people are all men

Below is the updated 2025 ranking based on data from Bloomberg and Forbes, showing who’s holding the crown today, and who’s breathing down their neck. 

Figures are approximate because billionaire wealth is as stable as crypto on a Sunday night.

There’s something almost funny about it: ten names, ten empires, ten men.

Half a trillion in orbit and not a single woman on the board.

No surprise there, but still worth a pause. Power, for now, wears a suit and answers to “sir.” There are, of course, women building, leading, investing – but the gate to this level of wealth remains narrow and well-guarded.

Maybe the next revolution isn’t another app or rocket company. Maybe it’s balance. Maybe that says more about systems than talent.

Now, let’s meet the men who currently hold the keys to the vault.

 

The list of the top 10 richest people in the world

You’ve seen the numbers. Half a trillion here, a couple hundred billion there. But behind every digit is a story.  A story of ego, risk, timing, and the occasional midlife reinvention. 

Even though they are considered the richest people in the world, they’re really so much more. They should be considered as living case studies in how capital compounds when vision meets nerve.

Let’s look closer at how each of them built – and keeps building – their fortunes.

1. Elon Musk – Tesla, SpaceX, xAI

Musk sits on top like he owns gravity. The richest man in the world has turned volatility into a lifestyle. His wealth hovers around $490 billion, tied mostly to Tesla, SpaceX, and now xAI, the company behind Grok, an AI chatbot with his trademark sarcasm.

Screenshot from grok.com

When he’s not testing rockets or trolling on X.com, Musk is reshaping entire industries. 

Tesla remains his biggest asset, SpaceX fuels his interplanetary ambitions, and xAI keeps him in the AI arms race. His empire is the definition of “too big to ignore,” and his fortune swings daily with his mood and market sentiment.

2. Larry Ellison – Oracle, Tesla investor

Ellison’s money is quiet; it doesn’t make noise, but what it does make is dividends. With a net worth orbiting $370 billion, the Oracle co-founder has quietly become one of the richest people in the world thanks to Oracle’s AI-driven cloud surge and his early bet on Tesla.

He spends his time on his Hawaiian island, managing an empire built on database dominance and an instinct for longevity. Ellison reminds investors that old tech, when steered right, can age into new money.

3. Mark Zuckerberg – Meta Platforms

After the metaverse nosedive, Zuckerberg did what few billionaires manage — a complete pivot. Mark Zuckerberg's net worth now sits near $245 billion, powered by Meta’s rebound and its shift toward AI, smart ads, and augmented reality.

He’s betting on VR headsets and AI assistants that live in your messages. Whether it’s a comeback story or a quiet rebrand, Zuckerberg has proven that control over social infrastructure still prints money.

4. Jeff Bezos – Amazon, Blue Origin

The Jeff Bezos net worth story is one of patience and persistence. Bezos built Amazon into a logistics empire that moves the world’s goods and data. His fortune remains tied to his 8.6 percent stake in Amazon and the relentless cash flow from AWS cloud services. 

Blue Origin is his long-term project to make space commercial. Bezos has become a strategist more than a founder – he focuses on climate funding, deep-tech investments, and building companies that outlive him.

5. Bernard Arnault – LVMH

Arnault doesn’t raise his voice. He builds cathedrals of luxury and lets the world come to kneel. Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Moët, Hennessy, Sephora – his brands hum like violins in the same orchestra. 

His fortune grows not from necessity but from longing. Bernard Anault’s net worth is around ~$193 billion, so his longing is huge.

He once said, “Luxury goods are the only area in which it is possible to make luxury margins.” That sentence is his empire in miniature – calm, mathematical, and ruthless. 

Arnault doesn’t sell products but rather the dream of being envied.

6. Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett lives in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958. He drinks Cherry Coke for breakfast. He reads six hours a day. The rest is patience. His fortune compounds while others chase headlines.

He once wrote, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” That’s how he invests. Not for the quarter. For the century. 

He plans his legacy the same way — slow, sturdy, and generous. Most of Warren Buffett's net worth, ~$153 billion, will go to charity when he’s gone.

7. Bill Gates – Microsoft, philanthropy

Bill Gates’ worth, net, is around $115 billion. He has traded software for vaccines. He builds systems for public health the way he once built them for computers — methodical, relentless, full of spreadsheets. He’s spent more on eradicating malaria than most nations.

He once said, 

That joke hides a truth about him because efficiency is his religion. Gates doesn’t talk about money anymore. He talks about time, disease, and the math of mercy.

8. Carlos Slim Helú – América Móvil, Latin American empire

The original telecom titan, Slim’s fortune, about $99 billion, was built on monopolies, infrastructure, and patience. He controls half of Mexico’s telecom market and has diversified into construction, finance, and media.

Carlos Slim is old-school wealth: slow, strategic, and firmly grounded in ownership. No AI hype, no social media empire, just decades of control over what people literally can’t live without.

9. Jensen Huang – Nvidia

Jensen Huang – net worth ~$175 billion, builds the machines that teach machines to think. He co-founded Nvidia in 1993, doodling chip designs on napkins and betting his last dollars that graphics cards would change the world. They did. Now, every AI model whispers his name before it speaks.

He wears a black leather jacket like armor and talks about semiconductors the way poets talk about rain. He once said,

“I hope we can make computing accessible to everyone.”

He’s getting close, though accessibility has a steep price. His GPUs power self-driving cars, deep fakes, and the algorithms that finish your sentences.

Nvidia hums beneath the internet like a hidden generator, and Huang is the man who flipped the switch.

10. Steve Ballmer – Microsoft, Los Angeles Clippers

Ballmer moves like his body’s plugged into a socket. He joined Microsoft in 1980 as employee number thirty, shouted his way through meetings, and somehow walked out a billionaire. He still owns about four percent of the company, and that stock pays him more every morning than most people make in a lifetime.

He loves data. He loves basketball. He loves yelling. The LA Clippers are his second act, a playground where money meets adrenaline. When he bought the team, reporters laughed. Now the Clippers are one of the NBA’s most valuable franchises.

There’s a video of him onstage back in 1999, drenched in sweat, screaming “Developers!” until his voice broke. 

That moment explains him better than any balance sheet. Ballmer doesn’t chase calm. He chases motion, sound, and the pure, loud joy of winning.

Honorary mentions

Michael Saylor – Bitcoin crusader

Estimated net worth: ~ US$7.3 billion (2025)

He’s the former CEO of MicroStrategy who converted his company into one of the world’s largest corporate bitcoin treasuries. His story hits two themes we love: risk (crypto) and vision (betting big).

Alexei Mordashov – Russian oligarch

Estimated net worth: ~ US$30.5 billion (2025)

Leading Russia’s mining & steel empire (via Severstal), his wealth shows how old-economy industries still power big fortunes—even amid geopolitical turbulence.

Pavel Durov – UAE-based tech founder

Estimated net worth: ~ US$17 billion (2025)

The founder of Telegram, based in Dubai now. He represents the tech-entrepreneur wave outside the usual “US/China” duopoly.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud (Saudi Arabia)

Net worth: ~ US$16.5 billion as of 2025.

Why mention him: He’s the richest Arab on the list of Arab billionaires. He holds global investments through his firm (e.g., hotels, finance, media) and has a major influence across markets.

What you might say: “A reminder that outside the tech-giant bubbles, there are still major fortunes built on global investing, real estate, and strategic stakes.”

 

Where the billionaires come from – global wealth concentration

Short answer to how many billionaires in the US: about 902 in 2025 on Forbes’ count, the most on earth. 

Forbes tallies 3,028 billionaires across 78 countries worth $16.1 trillion. China sits at ~450, India at ~205. Treat these as snapshots. Markets move. Headcounts move with them.

Two credible lenses tell a richer story.

• Forbes 2025: U.S. 902, China 450, India 205. Europe’s leaders include Germany 171 and the U.K. 55.
• Hurun 2025: U.S. 870, China 823, India 284. The U.S. “reclaimed” the top spot for the first time since 2016 in this dataset. Different methodology. Same conclusion about concentration.

Where the money is made: technology and finance keep minting the most names. 

• Tech counts ~401 billionaires. 
• Finance and investing shows ~464. AI chips, software, cloud, and capital markets still set the pace for new wealth.

What this means for you, my dear reader: the map keeps tilting toward the U.S., China, and India. The index heavyweights are tech platforms, luxury houses, energy, and capital allocators. Billionaire geography is policy and market structure turned into headcount.

 

How are these fortunes built? Common patterns among the richest

There’s a blueprint to extreme wealth. Different industries, same formula.

Innovation before it’s obvious

The richest people move early. Musk bet on electric cars when oil ruled the world. Huang built GPUs before AI needed them. Arnault scaled luxury into an empire while everyone else was chasing tech. They see what’s next before the rest of us get the memo.

Technology everywhere

Even the old-money names are tech-powered now. Bezos turned logistics into algorithms. Ballmer rode Microsoft’s software wave. Gates used code to reshape global health. Tech is no longer an industry. It’s the air we breathe.

Multiple income engines

One stream isn’t enough. Buffett holds entire industries under Berkshire. Arnault runs dozens of brands. Musk stacks Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. They build ecosystems that feed each other and never depend on one paycheck.

That logic scales down, too. You don’t need a rocket company to diversify – a smart investor can do it through platforms like Loanch, spreading capital across dozens of short-term consumer loans from different regions and sectors. 

The goal’s the same: steady returns from multiple moving parts, not one bet that breaks when the market sneezes.

Brand power

Money follows reputation. Apple’s half-trillion brand value proves it. LVMH runs on image as much as leather. Musk tweets and markets move. Strong branding isn’t decoration — it’s insulation.

Long-term thinking

The ultra-rich don’t usually chase hype. They plant seeds and wait. Buffett holds for decades. Arnault keeps refining. Huang invests in talent before anyone else does. Time compounds faster than any dividend.

That’s the real playbook: act early, scale fast, diversify wide, and stay patient when everyone else panics.

 

Final thoughts

You’ve just read ten stories of wealth, and a few more orbiting nearby. Names that built, scaled, and reshaped entire industries.

Now the question turns to you. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten? Thirty? What are you building while the world keeps moving?

Wealth always starts small – an idea, a risk, a decision that doesn’t look important until it is. Everyone on that list began there. Maybe your turn comes next.