The Rich Keep Getting Richer—Just in Time for Davos
Billionaire wealth hit a historic high in 2025, with male tech executives leading the way.
The combined wealth of the world’s richest people jumped by more than 16% to its highest in history last year, according to new research published on the eve of the World Economic Forum, which kicks off in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos this week.
Every year in January, hundreds of business leaders, philanthropists, academics, politicians, lobbyists and cultural figures gather in the ski town to discuss global issues ranging from climate change to the threats and opportunities created by new technologies.
But the meeting, often referred to simply as “Davos,” has also garnered a reputation for becoming a who’s who of the ultra-elite, replete with Champagne, caviar and private jets galore, making it a target of protest from those fighting economic inequality and climate change.
To coincide with the beginning of Davos, Oxfam, a global organization that aims to end poverty and injustice, publishes its annual research on the severity of wealth inequality, and this year, the nonprofit found that billionaires in 2025 held combined wealth worth $18.3 trillion, a staggering 81% increase on the figure from 2020.
At the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum, Oxfam noted that one-quarter of people globally don’t regularly have enough food to eat and almost half of the world’s population is considered to be living in poverty.
“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable,” Amitabh Behar said, Oxfam’s Executive Director. “Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite and defend wealth while repressing people’s rights and anger at how so many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable,” he added.
Tech billionaires reign
Analysis of the data shows that billionaires are now 4,000 times more likely than non-billionaires to hold political office, and it also shows that, in the U.S., President Donald Trump’s policies have particularly exacerbated economic inequality.
The Trump administration has cut taxes for the super wealthy and helped fuel the growth of major corporations—particularly tech companies—whose investors are among the ultra-rich. According to Forbes, the six richest people in the world right now are all tech executives: Elon Musk, followed by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg. The richest woman is Alice Walton—heiress to the fortune of Walmart—who is the 15th richest person. Only two women—Walton and Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of L'Oreal—feature in the top 20.
The gender inequality at the top represents the inverse of what’s happening at the bottom of the wealth spectrum, where women significantly outnumber men. Single mothers are among the most likely of all demographic groups likely to be poor.
According to Oxfam, the number of billionaires globally topped 3,000 last year for the first time. U.S. billionaire wealth now stands at almost $8 trillion—which represents more than one-third of all billionaire wealth globally. The U.S. last year was also home to more billionaires—at 932—than any other country in the world.
Josie Cox
Josie Cox
The Persistent
