The global billionaire population reached a record 3,795 people in 2025, with their combined wealth rising to $15.1 trillion, according to Altrata's Billionaire Census 2026.
The number of billionaires increased by 8.2% year on year, the strongest annual expansion in five years, while their collective wealth rose by 12.8%.
Altrata identifies strong equity markets, monetary conditions and investment enthusiasm around artificial intelligence among the factors supporting the increase.
AI and wealth creation
Artificial intelligence was a particularly important contributor to wealth creation among technology-focused billionaires.
Altrata examined 150 listed companies that contribute significantly to billionaire wealth and found that companies making meaningful AI investments recorded substantially stronger valuation growth over 2024 and 2025 than those that did not.
Because the wealth of many billionaires remains concentrated in equity ownership, increases in company valuations can translate rapidly into changes in personal net worth.
For family offices, this concentration creates both opportunity and risk. Large fortunes created through a single operating business or sector often need to address diversification as they move from entrepreneurial wealth creation towards long-term capital stewardship.
Wealth becomes more concentrated
The report also shows increasing concentration at the very top.
Altrata identifies 29 "superbillionaires" with fortunes above $50 billion. Together, this group controlled more than a quarter of total billionaire wealth in 2025.
The finding illustrates how dramatically the distribution of wealth changes even within the billionaire population itself.
The coming transfer of wealth
Succession is another central theme.
Altrata estimates that $6.6 trillion of billionaire wealth will be passed on over the coming decade, with thousands of spouses and adult children expected to receive substantial inheritances.
For family offices, the implications extend beyond estate planning.
Transitions of this scale can affect investment objectives, governance, philanthropy, risk appetite, geographic mobility and the role of the next generation in family decision-making.
Implications for private wealth
The Billionaire Census reinforces the extent to which wealth creation, technology and succession are converging.
The challenge for families that have created exceptional wealth is not only how to generate further returns. It is how to establish governance and investment structures capable of managing concentrated assets, changing family priorities and transfers of ownership over several generations.
Altrata, Billionaire Census 2026, published August 2026.