$15.1 trillion is an insane amount of private wealth. Then you have billionaires openly arguing that they should keep control of it rather than give it away.
Wealth of world’s billionaires reaches $15.1 trillion!
The ranks of the world’s billionaires hit a record 3,795 people in 2025 as the artificial intelligence boom turbocharged wealth creation across the globe, according to a recent report published by Altrata.
That finding marks an 8.2% uptick in billionaire headcount, the largest annual jump in five years, per the wealth intelligence firm. The combined wealth of the world’s billionaires surged by 12.8% to a record $15.1 trillion last year, it found.
Altrata identified 150 publicly listed companies that contributed the most to billionaire wealth. Firms that invested at least $30 million in AI over the past five years outperformed those that did not by 23% in market capitalization growth from 2024 through 2025, Altrata said.
COINBASE CEO VOWS TO NEVER GIVE A CENT TO CHARITY…
There was a time in the United States when the richest moguls, regardless of their many personal shortcomings, embraced philanthropy in a cynical effort to keep the angry mobs at bay. Andrew Carnegie famously built libraries, John D Rockefeller helped fund research that eventually eradicated hookworm, while JP Morgan donated vast collections of art and books to museums and other cultural institutions.
Today’s robber barons aren’t in such a giving mood. Sure, there are some figures like Microsoft’s Bill Gates — who has plenty of his own problems, to be clear — but they seem to be quickly becoming the minority.
Case in point, the billionaire CEO of cyrpto-trading company Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, recently went on a tirade about how charity is actually a “net negative on the world.”
“The common view is that philanthropy is a noble cause,” Amstrong said during a recent appearance on the right-wing Katie Miller Podcast. “And like, Bill Gates after the DoJ thing is like, ‘I’m going to go rehabilitate my image, I’m going to do philanthropy.’”