The only billionaires making money this year are in tech

Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison have a net worth of $16.3bn each: Picture: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

If 2026 feels like a banner year for the world’s tech billionaires, the numbers bear it out.

The roughly 100 technology fortunes among the world’s 500 richest people gained a combined $845bn (€754bn) through to September 30, the most ever for the first nine months of a year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Fuelling that surge were the same forces driving global markets: the artificial intelligence boom and soaring technology stocks, particularly in the US. Tech billionaires are now worth a combined $4.6trn, accounting for 36% of the index’s wealth, despite making up only about a fifth of its members.

The divergence is stark. Billionaires who made their fortunes outside technology lost a combined $62bn over the period, while Americans accounted for 94% of the index’s net gains. Since September 10, all 10 of the world’s richest people have been from the US — the first time that has happened since Bloomberg began tracking billionaires in 2012.

The gains have also been heavily concentrated at the very top. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, added $310bn to his fortune this year through the end of September, or roughly 40% of the index’s total increase. He briefly became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX merged with his artificial intelligence company, xAI, and went public in June.

Nine of the world’s 10 wealthiest people owe their fortunes to American tech firms. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell saw his wealth increase 81% to $254bn as his company’s data centre sales business ballooned. 

Mark Zuckerberg added $23bn to his net worth this year as shares of Meta Platforms gained 27% in September — its best month in almost four years — after rolling out its new Muse personal AI assistant.

Ireland has only two entries in the top 500. Brothers John and Patrick Collison also appear in the technology section at positions 177 and 178. The value of their Stripe payments firm puts their net worth at $16.3bn each, according to Bloomberg.

The world’s 500 richest people hit a peak of $13.4trn in combined wealth in mid-June. That has since fallen 6% to $12.6trn amid a broader market slowdown and growing doubts about some of the biggest AI names.

The historic debt binge fuelling big tech’s AI ambitions is making some investors uneasy. Larry Ellison briefly became the world’s richest person in September 2025, gaining $89bn in a single day after Oracle touted explosive growth in its AI-linked cloud infrastructure business.

Bloomberg