Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

By the end of 2025, the number of billionaires worldwide had reached a record 3,795 people, while their combined wealth rose to an unprecedented $15.1 trillion.

“In 2025, the number of billionaires worldwide reached a historic high of 3,795 people. The 8.2% increase was the strongest in the past five years, as rising stock markets, monetary incentives, and the investment boom in artificial intelligence fueled the rapid growth of wealth among the world’s richest people,” the authors of the report said.

During the year, 287 new people joined the billionaire club. Over the past decade, the number of billionaires has increased by almost 60%, highlighting the rapid growth of private wealth around the world.

At the same time, the combined wealth of billionaires reached a record $15.1 trillion in 2025, representing a 12.8% increase compared with 2024. According to the report’s authors, this amount is equivalent to nearly a quarter of the total market capitalization of the S&P 500 index.

The average billionaire currently has a fortune of around $4 billion. However, the median wealth is much lower, at approximately $2 billion. This difference reflects the highly uneven distribution of wealth within the billionaire group, where a relatively small number of extremely wealthy individuals account for a significant share of the total.

The report identifies 29 people as “super-billionaires,” each with an estimated net worth of more than $50 billion. Despite representing less than 1% of all billionaires, this small group controls around 27% of the total wealth of all billionaires, compared with just 7% in 2017.

The growing concentration of wealth among the world’s richest individuals is particularly notable. While the overall number of billionaires continues to rise, an increasingly large share of their combined fortune is concentrated in the hands of a very small group at the top.

One interesting factor behind the latest surge in billionaire wealth is the AI boom. The rapid growth of companies involved in artificial intelligence has significantly increased the value of technology stocks and created enormous gains for some of their founders and investors. As AI continues to attract record levels of investment, the technology sector is likely to remain one of the key drivers of global wealth creation in the coming years.