It was a great year for billionaires. Especially these ten.
The past 12 months have been very good to the planet’s billionaires. There are more of them (3,028) than ever before and they’re richer than they’ve ever been (worth a combined $16.1 trillion). Overall, the billionaire class is nearly $2 trillion richer than last year. But the big gains have not been shared evenly: $453 billion of the increase comes just from ten super fortunate people.
These ten biggest gainers on Forbes’ 2025 World’s Billionaires list each added tens of billions—or, in one case, more than $100 billion—to their already-massive fortunes since the 2024 ranking. They made their money in retail, finance and, mainly, tech.
No one in the world gained more than Elon Musk, who took back the title of richest person in the world after a stellar year for his startups SpaceX and xAI, plus a 12-month rise in the share price of Tesla, despite a recent selloff. Musk is an astonishing $147 billion richer this year. He’s the only billionaire to add nine figures to his net worth since the 2024 list.
Eight of the ten are American citizens, either through birth or, in the case of Musk, naturalization. The other two are Lei Jun, a Chinese citizen whose fortune grew by 300%, to an estimated $43.5 billion, thanks to higher demand for his company’s electric cars, and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian citizen worth an estimated $62.9 billion amid a jump in crypto markets.
Here are the ten billionaires on the 2025 World’s Billionaires list who gained the most wealth over the past year, in dollar terms.
NET WORTHS ARE AS OF MARCH 7, 2025.
Tim Pannell for Forbes
#10. Alice Walton
Net Worth: $101 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$28.7 Billion | Source of Wealth: Walmart | Citizenship: U.S.
The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992), she became the world’s richest woman in September, her first time since 2022. She hit the $100 billion mark in November as Walmart shares climbed to record highs. The stock is up more than 53% since last year. Best known for spearheading the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in her family’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, Walton has given away an estimated $1.7 billion, including her most recent gift, disclosed in an August filing, of $249 million to help fund the new Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, also in Bentonville.
#9. Changpeng Zhao
Net Worth: $62.9 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$29.9 Billion | Source of Wealth: Cryptocurrency exchange | Citizenship: Canada
Changpeng Zhao, who goes by CZ, is the founder and former CEO of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. In November 2023, Zhao stepped down as Binance’s CEO as part of a sweeping settlement with U.S. authorities. He pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and was sentenced to four months in prison. He also paid a $50 million fine. He’s richer this year amid bull crypto markets and a Forbes investigation into his vast holdings of Binance’s exchange-issued token, BNB.
#8. Larry Page
Net Worth: $144 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$30 Billion | Source of Wealth: Google | Citizenship: U.S.
Despite demands from the Justice Department to break up Google, the Alphabet cofounder and board member is $30 billion richer thanks to a 30% rise in the Google parent company’s shares. Page, who stepped down as Alphabet CEO in 2019, is reportedly working on a new company that plans to apply AI to manufacturing.
#7. Jim Walton
Net Worth: $109 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$30.6 Billion | Source of Wealth: Walmart | Citizenship: U.S.
The youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992), he retired from Walmart’s board in 2016 and yielded the seat to his son Steuart. He remains the chairman of the family’s Arvest Bank Group, which boasts assets of $26 billion.
#6. Jeff Yass
Net Worth: $59 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$31.4 Billion | Source of Wealth: Trading, investments | Citizenship: U.S.
The cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, one of Wall Street’s largest and most successful trading firms, has invested in hundreds of private companies globally, including TikTok parent ByteDance, its most valuable holding based on Forbes reporting. He’s benefitted as ByteDance’s valuation has hit $312 billion in private markets amid a bidding war over TikTok.
#4 (tie). Rob Walton
Net Worth: $110 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$32.6 Billion | Source of Wealth: Walmart | Citizenship: U.S.
In September, he became the first member of America’s richest family to join the $100 billion club, on the back of rising Walmart shares. The eldest son of Sam Walton (d. 1992), he retired from the board in June 2024, after more than four decades as a director.
Visual China Group via Getty Images
#4 (tie). Lei Jun
Net Worth: $43.5 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$32.6 Billion | Source of Wealth: Smartphones | Citizenship: China
From budget-friendly smartphones to electric vehicles, Xiaomi has come a long way since Lei Jun cofounded the Hong Kong-listed company in 2010. With the firm’s electric vehicle venture seeing higher demand for its cars, shares have climbed more than 300%. Last year, Lei was worth an estimated $10.9 billion. He is also the chairman of Hong Kong-listed software firm Kingsoft and an investor in JOYY Inc., a Nasdaq-listed live-streaming and social media platform formerly known as YY.com.
#3. Mark Zuckerberg
Net Worth: $216 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$39 Billion | Source of Wealth: Facebook | Citizenship: U.S.
Not long ago, Mark Zuckerberg banned President Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram following the January 6 riots. One presidential election later, the Meta founder has friended Trump, including putting pro-Trump entrepreneur Dana White on Meta’s board in early January and cohosting an inauguration reception for the president alongside several Republican billionaires. Shares of his social media giant have surged nearly 25% since last year’s list, making Zuck the second richest person in the world for the first time.
#2. Larry Ellison
Net Worth: $192 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$51 Billion | Source of Wealth: Oracle | Citizenship: U.S.
Ellison, too, has been sticking close to Trump. He may not have been front and center among tech tycoons during the president’s inauguration, but he stood a few feet away from Trump when the president soon announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative backed, in part, by Ellison’s software firm Oracle. Ellison’s net worth went up by $51 billion this year thanks to a growing AI business that helped push Oracle’s stock price up by 40%.
AFP via Getty Images
#1. Elon Musk
Net Worth: $342 Billion | Gain since March 2024: +$147 Billion | Source of Wealth: Tesla, SpaceX | Citizenship: U.S.
Thanks to an incredible $147 billion year, Elon Musk, yet again, is the richest person alive. All of his largest assets have gone up in value: Tesla stock is up 50% since last year’s list, rocket maker SpaceX is worth $350 billion, nearly double its valuation from last year, and Musk’s artificial intelligence business, xAI, raised $6 billion from private investors at a $50 billion valuation in November—then, last week, Musk announced that xAI was acquiring X (formerly Twitter) in an all-stock deal that valued X at more than what Musk paid in 2022, and boosted xAI’s valuation to an apparent $80 billion–a $30 billion bump from just three months ago.
