AI boom and wealth records: US tech billionaires added $550 billion, but markets fear a bubble
26 December 19:38
The richest American tech billionaires collectively increased their wealth by more than $550 billion in 2025, taking advantage of the global investment boom in artificial intelligence. This was reported by the Financial Times, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
According to the Financial Times, the ten richest founders and CEOs of US tech companies held nearly $2.5 trillion in cash, stocks, and other assets on Christmas Eve. For comparison, at the beginning of the year, their total wealth was about $1.9 trillion.
The growth occurred in parallel with the stock market rise: the S&P 500 index added more than 18%, but it was the AI sector that became the main driver of capital gains.
Why AI
Silicon Valley leaders have benefited from hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the world:
- production of AI chips
- construction of data centers,
- development of products and services based on artificial intelligence.
Investors were actively buying up shares of companies directly or indirectly associated with AI, hoping for a long-term transformation of the economy – from industry to media and defense.
However, in the second half of the year, optimism was partially overshadowed by fears of an investment bubble, which led to the adjustment of some of the “paper” profits.
Investors’ doubts
Economists warn that the current growth is largely based on expectations, not on confirmed financial results.
“All of this is speculative and tightly tied to the success of AI. There is a huge question mark whether it will all pay off, but investors are betting that it will,” says Harvard University professor Jason Furman, a consultant at OpenAI.
Analysts compare the situation to the early 2000s, when the Internet boom sharply raised the valuations of companies, but not all of them were able to meet expectations.
Who won the most
The absolute leader is Elon Musk, whose fortune grew by almost 50% to $645 billion over the year. He only briefly lost the top spot in September, when Oracle founder Larry Ellison briefly took the lead.
The growth of Musk’s wealth is due to several factors:
- tesla’s shareholders’ approval of a record remuneration package, which is estimated at about $1 trillion;
- a sharp increase in the valuation of SpaceX – up to $800 billion;
- the general rise of the technology stock market.
In mid-December, Musk became the first person in history to exceed $600 billion, finally securing his status as the world’s richest man.
The rapid enrichment of the tech elite has re-activated the discussion about:
- concentration of capital in the hands of a narrow circle of people,
- the role of technology giants in shaping economic cycles,
- the vulnerability of financial markets to “fashionable” investment trends.
For the markets, AI remains both a promise of breakthrough and a source of risk: if the technology fails to deliver the expected returns, the correction can be sharp.
