Billionaire wealth soars to record $18.3 trillion

Global billionaire fortunes surged 16% in 2025 to $18.3 trillion, marking the highest level ever and widening economic and political divides, anti-poverty group Oxfam reported Monday.

The charity’s analysis, timed with the World Economic Forum in Davos, found that the wealth of billionaires has jumped 81% since 2020, even as one in four people worldwide struggle to eat regularly and nearly half the global population lives in poverty.

Oxfam highlighted that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely than ordinary citizens to hold political office, warning that this concentration of wealth and influence threatens democratic stability. The report links recent gains to U.S. policies under President Donald Trump, tax cuts, reduced corporate oversight, and soaring valuations of artificial intelligence companies.

“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable,” said Oxfam executive director Amitabh Behar.

The charity urged governments to adopt national inequality reduction plans, impose higher taxes on extreme wealth, and enforce firewalls between money and politics, including limits on lobbying and campaign financing.

Oxfam calculated that the $2.5 trillion added to billionaire fortunes last year equals the wealth held by the poorest 4.1 billion people. The global billionaire population exceeded 3,000 for the first time, with Elon Musk becoming the first individual to surpass $500 billion in net worth.

The report also highlighted the growing influence of billionaires over media, noting that they now control more than half of the world’s major media companies, including holdings by Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and France’s Vincent Bolloré.

Behar warned that governments are making choices favoring the ultra-wealthy, citing aid cuts and rollbacks of civil liberties as examples.