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The South African magnate amasses the largest fortune ever estimated by ‘Forbes’ in an edition with record numbers of billionaires
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, has regained the top spot among the world’s richest, according to the list compiled since 1987 by the magazine ‘Forbes’, which attributes to the South African magnate a fortune of 342.000 billion dollars (316.023 billion euros), which is 75% more than in 2024 and makes the businessman «the richest person ‘Forbes’ has ever tracked.»
He who has become one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters both in his bid to return to the White House and after assuming office, leads after two consecutive years in the second position on the list behind the Frenchman Bernard Arnault, standing out at 53 years old as the largest fortune ever estimated by the magazine, which highlights Musk’s wealth explosion «in a year in which he consolidated his political influence.»
In this sense, although ranking 700th on the ‘Forbes’ list, the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, has enjoyed one of the largest increases in wealth among the world’s richest, with an estimated wealth growth of 122%, up to 5.100 billion dollars (4.713 billion euros).
In Trump’s case, the magazine highlights that he «has presided over the most lucrative post-presidency in the history of the United States» and in addition to his traditional real estate businesses, he has added the proceeds from the commercialization of NFTs and other collectibles among his supporters, as well as shares in a social media company.
The ‘Forbes’ list in 2025 places Mark Zuckerberg (Meta’s president) behind Musk, with an estimated wealth gap of over 100.000 billion dollars (92.404 billion euros), whose estimated wealth increased by 22% in the last year, up to 216.000 billion dollars (199.594 billion euros), while in third place is Jeff Bezos (Amazon), with a fortune of 215.000 billion dollars (198.670 billion euros), almost 11% more than in 2024.
The rest of the top ten positions in the ranking of the richest include Larry Ellison in fourth place, with a fortune of around 192.000 billion dollars (177.417 billion euros), followed by the French Bernard Arnault and family, the first non-American on the list who led the ranking in the previous two years, with an estimated wealth of 178.000 billion dollars (164.480 billion euros).
In sixth place this year is the ‘Oracle of Omaha,’ Warren Buffett, who at 94 years old is one of the oldest on the list, with an estimated fortune of 154.000 billion dollars (142.303 billion euros).
The rest of the top ten positions in this year’s edition of the ‘Forbes’ list include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who precede Amancio Ortega, ninth in the ranking, and Steve Ballmer.
RICHER AND RICHER THAN EVER.
The latest edition of the ‘Forbes’ billionaires list becomes the first to surpass the threshold of 3,000 members, as a total of 3,028 people from around the world have amassed a fortune of at least 1.000 billion dollars (924 billion euros), an increase of 247 from last year’s ranking.
Also, the estimated net worth by the magazine for the world’s wealthiest would reach an aggregate amount of 16.1 trillion dollars (14.9 trillion euros), nearly 2 trillion dollars (1.8 trillion euros) more than a year ago and surpassing the GDP of all countries in the world, except the United States, with 27.7 trillion dollars (25.6 trillion euros) and China (17.8 trillion dollars (16.4 trillion euros).
This explosion of wealth has allowed, for the first time in the 39 editions of the list, three people with a wealth exceeding 200.000 billion dollars (184.808 billion euros), as well as a total of 15 people with a wealth of at least 100.000 billion dollars (92.404 billion euros), compared to 14 from last year and none in 2017.
In fact, the combined wealth of the 15 richest people on the ‘Forbes’ list would amount to 2.4 trillion dollars (2.2 trillion euros), more than the 1,500 billionaires with less net worth on the list, practically the second half of the ranking.
The United States, with a record 902 billionaire citizens, continues to have more rich people than any other place on the planet, ahead of China, with 516, and India, with 205. Thus, more than 50% of all those listed are citizens of one of these three countries, although the ranking includes a total of 76 nations and two semi-autonomous territories, including Albania for the first time in history.
SPRINGSTEEN AND SCHWARZENEGGER ENTER THE LIST
Compared to the 2024 edition, this year’s list includes a total of 288 new faces among the billionaires, with added celebrities such as rock star Bruce Springsteen, with about 1.200 billion dollars (1.108 billion euros); actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with 1.100 billion dollars (1.016 billion euros) or comedian Jerry Seinfeld, with 1.100 billion dollars.
Also, among the newcomers to the ranking, ‘Forbes’ highlights cryptocurrency magnates like Justin Sun, with 8.500 billion dollars (7.854 billion euros), as well as several AI entrepreneurs linked to companies like Anthropic, CoreWeave, and DeepSeek.
On the other hand, the list’s creators point out that only 406 women managed to enter the world’s richest, representing only 13.4% of the list, just a tenth more than last year, highlighting that «almost three-quarters inherited their fortunes,» including the world’s richest woman, Alice Walton, heir to Walmart, with a fortune of about 101.000 billion dollars (93.328 billion euros), who has surpassed this year the heir to L’Oréal, the Frenchwoman Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, with 81.600 billion dollars (75.402 billion euros).
Thus, the magazine points out that among the richest, only 113 women achieved their own fortune, with the wealthiest among them being Swiss shipping magnate Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, with 37.700 billion dollars (34.836 billion euros).
However, overall, 67% of the list consists of millionaires who built their own fortune – that is, founded or co-founded their company or amassed their own wealth, rather than inheriting it – compared to 66% in 2024. The youngest self-made billionaire is Alexandr Wang, co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, with 2.000 billion dollars (1.848 billion euros) at 28 years old.
In addition to Wang, the 2025 edition of the list includes 20 other young billionaires aged 30 or younger, while the oldest billionaire, at 103 years old, is American insurance tycoon George Joseph, with a wealth of 1.900 billion dollars (1.755 billion euros), one of the four centenarian billionaires, although the average age of the members is 66 years.
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FUENTE
