America’s 15 richest billionaires got $1 trillion richer as the affordability crisis became a top concern in 2025 |
For many Americans, 2025 wasn’t a great year financially. The affordability crisis and general economic concerns became defining themes of the year as people dealt with rising costs and a worsening job market.
But for billionaires, 2025 was a boon to their already exuberant wealth.
The 15 richest billionaires in the United States saw their wealth grow by more than $1 trillion over the course of the year, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
As of the end of 2025, those 15 billionaires—each with assets over $100 billion—have a combined wealth of $3.2 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion a year ago.
That’s a gain of 33%, which is more than double the growth of the S&P 500 in the same time period, the Institute for Policy Studies notes. Over 2025, the S&P 500 rose 16%. (A double-digit gain is strong, but it is down from recent years; the S&P 500 returned 23% in 2024, and 24% in 2023.)
Not only did billionaires get richer in 2025, but more Americans became billionaires. At the end of 2024, there........