• Warren Buffett has surpassed Bill Gates on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
• The Berkshire Hathaway CEO is up an unmatched $18.7 billion this year to $161 billion.
• Buffett has consistently trailed Gates since the rich list launched in 2012.

Warren Buffett has overtaken Bill Gates on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after adding an unmatched $18.7 billion to his net worth this year.

The Berkshire Hathaway CEO has climbed to sixth place on the list with a $161 billion fortune, $1 billion more than Gates. He's also the biggest wealth gainer of 2025 so far — outpacing a $17 billion rise by the TikTok investor Jeff Yass.

Buffett has consistently trailed Gates on the rich list. When the Microsoft cofounder's net worth dipped below $110 billion during a market slump in October 2022, Buffett was worth less than $100 billion.

Similarly, during the pandemic-driven crash in March 2020, Gates' wealth dipped below $95 billion, but Buffett was under $65 billion.

Even when Buffett surged to $130 billion in March 2022, Gates still had a slight edge at about $135 billion.

The earliest entries on Bloomberg's list, which began in March 2012, show Gates at $63 billion and Buffett at $44 billion.

Buffett's gain, Gates' pain

Buffett's gain this year reflects a 13% rise in Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares, while an 8% decline in Microsoft stock has limited Gates' wealth increase to $1.3 billion.

The Trump administration's policies have reignited inflation and recession fears, spurring investors to sell riskier technology stocks and reconsider more conservatively valued stocks such as Berkshire.

Last year, Berkshire Hathaway nearly doubled its stockpile of cash, Treasury bills, and other liquid assets to $334 billion. It sold a net $134 billion worth of stocks and spent less than $3 billion on share buybacks, halting repurchases entirely in the second half of the year.

While Buffett may be ahead now, Gates has typically led him in wealth rankings even outside Bloomberg's. Gates topped Forbes' annual list of the 400 richest Americans on 25 occasions, including a 24-year streak from 1994 to 2017. Buffett, in contrast, has ranked first only once, in 1993.

Giving it away

Since 2006, Buffett has donated about 57% of his Berkshire shares, which make up virtually all of his personal wealth — primarily to four of his family's foundations and the Gates Foundation.

Those shares would be worth $207 billion based on Berkshire's stock price at Friday's close. If Buffett had retained those shares, he'd be the world's richest person, with a fortune in excess of $360 billion, comfortably surpassing Elon Musk's $320 billion estimated net worth.

Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, had given nearly $60 billion to their foundation as of 2023.

Regulatory disclosures show that Gates owned about 1.3% of Microsoft before stepping down as director in 2020. Most of his wealth is now held in Cascade Investment, a holding company he funded with Microsoft stock sales and dividends.

Musk remains the world's richest person, with a roughly $102 billion lead on Bloomberg's list over Jeff Bezos, who's in second place, despite Musk being the biggest wealth loser this year with a $112 billion decline.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is just $4 billion behind in third spot, with an estimated $214 billion, following a $7.2 billion increase this year.

• The "Donald of Dubai" now ranks in the world's 200 richest people with a net worth of $13 billion.
• Hussain Sajwani joined Trump last week to say he'd invest $20 billion in US data centers.
• Sajwani is a longtime Trump associate and an investor in Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI.

A real estate tycoon dubbed the "Donald of Dubai" has shot up the ranks of the world's wealthiest people, securing a top-200 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Hussain Sajwani, an associate of both President-elect Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, wasn't on the 500-person list at the end of 2024. He now sits in 179th place with a $13.1 billion fortune.

Sajwani joined Trump at a press conference last week to announce he'd invest at least $20 billion in US data centers, and cited the incoming president's pro-business policies for the move. Data centers serve a key role in powering cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

The Emirati billionaire now sits one spot behind financier Charles Schwab, and well ahead of fashion designer Ralph Lauren and Laurene Powell Jobs — the widow of Apple's late cofounder, Steve Jobs.

Sajwani has added $9.8 billion to his wealth in 2025 following Dubai's property boom, according to Bloomberg. That gain is beaten only by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the world's third-richest person, who's up an estimated $10.5 billion this month.

Sajwani is the chairman and founder of Damac Group, a private conglomerate that counts luxury real estate developer Damac Properties and fashion label Roberto Cavalli among the businesses it owns.

The 71-year-old partnered with the next US president to build the first Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East a decade ago. He's also invested in Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI, press releases show.

Sajwani recently posted a picture on X of himself with Trump and Musk at a New Year's bash at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Trump's business ties have raised concerns of bias and conflicts of interest, especially after Musk emerged as one of his key donors, campaigners, and confidants in the recent presidential election.

• Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang have jointly become $28 billion wealthier this year.
• Meta and Nvidia shares surged during the first three trading days of 2025 on fresh AI excitement.
• Zuckerberg and Huang's combined wealth rose by almost $150 billion in 2024.

Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang have jointly grown $28 billion richer in just the first three trading days of this year, meaning they're worth $350 billion combined — more than Bank of America.

The Meta CEO has gained about $15 billion this year, while the Nvidia CEO's wealth has risen by about $13 billion. Their flying start has made them the biggest wealth gainers on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index so far in 2025, but other big names in tech aren't far behind.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was up about $12 billion at Monday's close, followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with an $8 billion increase, and Alphabet cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, up about $6 billion each. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was next on the list at $5 billion in the green.

Zuckerberg and Huang's combined gain of $28 billion accounts for nearly half of the net $61 billion increase for the world's 20 richest people in 2025. The pair's wealth jump reflects a nearly 8% advance in Meta stock and an 11% rise for Nvidia this year.

Meta shares benefited from Wall Street analysts raising their price targets. Nvidia climbed on signs of strong demand for microchips and anticipation for Huang's keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday.

The Nvidia chief revealed new chips and a $3,000 AI supercomputer named Digits. He also announced partnerships in robotics, self-driving cars, and more independent or "agentic" AI.

Zuckerberg and Huang's personal fortunes grew by about $79 billion and $70 billion respectively last year, trailing only Elon Musk's $203 billion gain by Bloomberg's estimates.

The world's 20 richest people grew a combined $702 billion wealthier last year, lifting their net worth to above $3 trillion — a figure that rivals Microsoft's market value of $3.2 trillion.

Tech leaders including Meta, Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, and Alphabet have surged in recent years, supercharging the wealth of their biggest shareholders, as investors bet they'll play pivotal roles in the AI revolution and capture a big chunk of the profits generated.

• The world's 10 wealthiest people added more than $500 billion to their combined fortunes in 2024.
• The top 20 gained $700 billion and ended the year with a total worth above $3 trillion.
• Elon Musk scored a huge $203 billion gain, but other tech bosses also notched up big rises.

The richest people on the planet saw their fortunes surge in 2024 as the artificial intelligence boom, the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts, Donald Trump's election victory, and a robust economic outlook helped the stock market to roar.

The world's 10 wealthiest people grew more than $500 billion richer last year, boosting their combined net worth to just over $2 trillion — not far off the $2.3 trillion market values of Amazon and Google owner Alphabet.

Widen the lens to the top 20 names on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and the total net worth jumped $700 billion to above $3 trillion by the year's end, rivaling Microsoft's $3.1 trillion market value.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk led the pack with a $203 billion gain for the year, which lifted his personal fortune to $432 billion at the market close on December 31.

His net worth briefly touched $486 billion a couple of weeks earlier after Tesla stock surged to a record high and SpaceX's valuation leaped to $350 billion. At that point, his year-to-date gain of $257 billion exceeded the entire net worth of Jeff Bezos, no.2 on the rich list.

However, Musk wasn't the only one to notch huge wealth gains in 2024. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, and Bezos all grew between $60 billion and $80 billion wealthier as their respective companies surged in value.

Other Big Tech luminaries scored big gains too with Michael Dell, the founder of the eponymous computer maker, adding $45 billion to his fortune. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin added $42 billion and $38 billion to their respective fortunes.

Tech leaders accounted for most of the wealth gains, but Walmart founder Sam Walton's three surviving heirs — Jim, Alice, and Rob — each grew more than $38 billion richer, thrusting the trio into the $100 billion club for the first time.

Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owes scores of businesses like Geico and huge stakes in public companies like Coca-Cola, also gained $22 billion and ended the year on $142 billion.

Not everyone's a winner

There were a few wealth losers among the uber-wealthy, however. LVMH founder and CEO Bernard Arnault saw his fortune shrink from over $230 billion at its peak in March to $176 billion by the end of December, sending him from first place to fifth.

Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Mexican telecoms mogul Carlos Slim, Indian infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, and L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers all lost money last year by Bloomberg's estimates.

The superrich mostly got wealthier because excited investors wagered the likes of Nvidia, Tesla, and Microsoft would post higher profits by playing key roles in the AI revolution.

The Fed also made its first cuts to rates after hiking them to curb runaway inflation in 2022 and 2023. That has benefited stocks by making them relatively more appealing versus fixed-income assets such as government bonds, and could boost corporate profits by encouraging spending and borrowing.

Trump's win in November pushed stocks higher too, as the former president had run on promises of pro-growth policies such as tax cuts and deregulation. Tesla in particular gained as investors bet Musk's close ties to the future president would benefit the automaker.