The world's billionaires have always been rich and powerful"but never more than now. That's particularly true in the United States, where Donald Trump was sworn in (again) as America's billionaire-in-chief in January. This time around, he's giving the billionaire class more control over the government than ever before. His right-hand man is the planet's richest person. His administration includes at least ten billionaires and billionaire spouses. And scores of billionaire execs"from Meta's Mark Zuckerberg to French luxury goods kingpin Bernard Arnault"have lined up behind Trump. The billionaire bonanza extends beyond the U.S., however. A record 3,028 people around the globe make Forbes' annual World's Billionaires list this year, 247 more than last year. It's the first time the billionaire population has crossed the 3,000 mark.
The richest of all is Elon Musk, worth an estimated $342 billion. Despite spending a lot more of his (already divided) time heading DOGE, Trump's cost-cutting operation, Musk has added $147 billion to his fortune over the past year, thanks to a blockbuster year for his rocket company SpaceX and his AI firm xAI (which he merged with his social media giant X last week). Even Tesla, despite recent protests and a stock market selloff, is trading higher than a year ago. That's allowed Musk to reclaim the title of world's richest person from Arnault, and has given him a $126 billion lead over the next richest person: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg (estimated net worth: $216 billion), who ranks No. 2 for the first time. Amazon's Jeff Bezos ($215 billion) ranks No. 3 and Oracle's Larry Ellison ($192 billion) ranks fourth. Arnault ($178 billion), meanwhile, slides down to fifth, his lowest rank since 2017, amid a slump in shares of his luxury conglomerate LVMH. Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 7, 2025 for this year's ranking.
Drudge Retort Headlines
FBI Director Posts Picture of Arrested Wisconsin Judge's Perp Walk (91 comments)
Bloomberg Analysis: Trump Tells Americans What Putin Wants Them to Hear (58 comments)
They Wanted to Build Affordable Housing, Town Took Land. (38 comments)
Milwaukee Judge Accused of Helping Illegal Migrant Sneak from Court (35 comments)
Yale Mates Warn Sec Bessent Enabling Descent Into Fascism (23 comments)
China Tells Trump: If You Want Trade Talks, Cancel Tariffs (23 comments)
Another Trump Supporter Finds Out (23 comments)
China Cancels 12,000 Metric Tons of US Pork Shipments (21 comments)
Trump's Tariffs Stoke Fears Of Shortages (19 comments)
Trump Demands Investigations Into Negative Polls (17 comments)