AI rally lifts combined wealth of US tech billionaires above $2.5T

According to FT, the total was about $1.9 trillion at the start of the year. That puts the 12-month increase at more than $550 billion.

The S&P 500 rose more than 18% in 2025. Big spending on AI infrastructure, from chips to data centers, helped drive the rally. At the same time, the word “bubble” keeps coming up. Some investors are uneasy about how quickly expectations are rising and whether parts of the trade are overvalued.

Elon Musk remained No. 1. His net worth rose by nearly 50% to $645 billion. In the fall, he briefly slipped behind Larry Ellison, Oracle’s founder, but soon moved back to the top spot. FT notes several tailwinds for Musk: Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package valued at $1 trillion, and SpaceX was valued at $800 billion.

Google co-founders strengthened their positions in the top 10. Larry Page is estimated at $270 billion, while Sergey Brin is at $251 billion. Jensen Huang of Nvidia ranked eighth with $156 billion. Nvidia has been a central name in the “AI chip” wave, and filings show Huang has sold more than $1 billion of stock.

Not everyone benefited equally.

Mark Zuckerberg fell in the ranking as Meta AI shares declined. Investors have focused on heavy AI infrastructure spending and costly deals for high-profile researchers.

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s founder and board chair, jumped after reports of a data-center deal between Oracle and OpenAI worth $100 billion. Oracle shares later dropped about 40% from a September peak as questions surfaced about financing the buildout of data-center infrastructure tied to the project.

Bill Gates was the only member of the top 10 to end the year with a smaller fortune. He continued selling Microsoft shares to fund philanthropic work.