Money apparently makes the world go round more than ever before, as the Forbes rich list has revealed that billionaires hold a record-smashing combined wealth of $16,000,000,000,000, with overall numbers increasing dramatically.
One look at the front row of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration would show anyone not only how influential the richest individuals in the world are, but also the sheer scale of their combined net worth - which in this instance scaled beyond $1.35 trillion.
While the net worth of many of the wealthiest people worldwide has decreased in the past few months due to tariff and AI-related shakeups, Sky News have reported that the overall net worth of billionaires on our planet has never been higher.
This information comes from the yearly Forbes rich list, which details not only the wealthiest individuals, but also the number of billionaires in total, alongside their combined monetary holdings.
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2025 marks a record-smashing edition in more ways than one. First and foremost, there are now more people recognized as billionaires than ever before, reaching a total of 3,028 - 247 more than last year's list.
Importantly, these 3,000 plus billionaires are also richer than ever before, as totalled together their net worth amounts to an eye-watering $16.1 trillion, which has increased by nearly $2 trillion in the last year.
America, as expected, houses the largest number of billionaires with 902 - almost a third of the global total, with China (516 including Hong Kong) and India (205) coming in behind.
Standing undisputed at the top of the list is Elon Musk, to the surprise of no one. Sitting with a net worth of $377.9 billion, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has seen a dramatic increase of $147 billion to his fortunes since 2024 despite tumbling stock valuations for his electric car empire.
Over $120 billion below Musk are both Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who have a net worth of $216 billion and $215 billion respectively, although the latter certainly has no trouble splurging his extortionate wealth on expensive purchases.
Looking further down the list you'll find Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in 68th place, who is one of the few billionaires in the top 100 at least who has lost money in the last year, having shed around $8.5 billion since the 2024 list was released.
This is due to her philanthropic actions that have seen her give away smaller sums to a significantly large number of charities and nonprofits, in a bid to give away most of her now $27.1 billion net worth.