Winners and losers: Billionaires boom but Brits suffer largest fall in wealth since pandemic
The artificial intelligence boom fuelled a 13 per cent surge in global billionaire wealth last year, according to a fresh study which also found the UK has suffered the biggest fall in overall wealth levels of any developed nation since the pandemic.
According to the UBS temperature check of high-net-worth individuals, nearly 400 billionaires were minted worldwide in 2025 thanks largely to the tech-driven rally in private and public markets. The figures mean there are now 3,302 billionaires in the world, the bank said, more than a thousand of which live in the US and nearly 600 in China.
Total billionaire wealth rose by some 25 per cent – compared with just 10.8 per cent rise in average wealth globally – as a result of many super-rich investors’ outsized stake in the AI and tech boom.
Musk drives billionaire wealth
Last month, Elon Musk temporarily became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO. The rocket maker was valued at $1.8 trillion at its market debut, and its shares then rallied nearly 40 per cent during their first few days of trading. The surge in valuation made the Tesla boss the world’s first 13-figure man for several days days, before losing the status when the space and AI company sold off days after listing.
UBS found there to be 18 individuals whose net worth is between $50bn and $100bn and 19 centi-billionaires. Last year also marked the third consecutive year in which global wealth had expanded.
But Britain largely missed out in the global wealth boom, authors went on to warn, with UK residents suffering the largest fall in wealth of any developed economy since the pandemic.
The average Brit has shed more than a fifth of their wealth in real terms over the last five years, they said, the most of any of the 37 countries assessed by the bank. Families in Bulgaria, Mexico, Kazakhstan and even Turkey all enjoyed , despite the latter suffering one of the most severe hyperinflation shocks in its history during the reporting period.
The average UK household tend to have a disproportionate amount of wealth devoted to property, which has mostly flatlined despite years of above-target inflation, the study’s authors said.
Billionaire wealth is also on the decline in Britain amid an exodus of high-net worth individuals from the country. This year’s edition of The Sunday Times Rich List found that one in six entrants from 2024’s study were absent from the 2026 iteration because they had left the UK in favour of lower tax jurisdictions.