The wealth of the world's richest people has grown to a record amount
The wealth of the world's richest people has grown three times faster in 2025 than the five-year average, while almost half of the world's population lives in poverty. This was reported by Reuters on January 19, citing a report by the human rights organization Oxfam.
According to an Oxfam study, the total wealth of billionaires worldwide grew by $2.5 trillion by 16% in 2025, reaching a record $18.3 trillion. At the same time, the inflation—adjusted growth since 2020 amounted to $8.2 trillion, or 81%. It is specified that $2.5 trillion is approximately equal to the total wealth of 4.1 billion of the world's poorest people.
Oxfam warns that the new wealth boom, triggered, among other things, by US President Donald Trump's policies to protect multinational corporations and the rising value of AI companies, is "exacerbating economic and political divisions that threaten the stability of democracy."
The widening gap between the wealth of the richest and the rest of the world's population leads to an increased concentration of political influence. The report notes that today, billionaires hold political positions in 4 thousand. several times more often than ordinary citizens, and they also own more than half of the world's largest media companies.
The publication of the Oxfam report is timed to coincide with the opening of the World Economic Forum, which will be held from January 19 to 23 in Davos, Switzerland.
Earlier, on January 17, American entrepreneur Elon Musk announced the launch of the Colossus 2 supercomputer, which will train the Grok neural network chatbot. Musk explained that this supercomputer is the world's first educational cluster with a capacity exceeding 1 GW. He added that in April 2026, the capacity of Colossus 2 will be increased to 1.5 GW.
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