US tech billionaires reap over $550bn as AI hype drives market growth

US top tech billionaires have added over $550bn to their combined net worth in 2025 as the AI rush makes investors bet big.

According to Bloomberg data, cited by The Financial Times, the top 10 US tech founders and execs cumulatively possessed more than $2.5tn in combined wealth, including cash, equity, and other investments, at the close of trading in New York on Christmas Eve.

The staggering figure is up from $1.9tn at the start of the year, reflecting a massive AI gold rush.

Tech leaders have benefited from the accelerating investment in AI software, chips, and data centers, despite growing concerns over the AI bubble bursting.

Elon Musk remains the world’s richest man – his net worth has increased by nearly 50% year-on-year to $638bn as of December 28th, 2025. He became the first person whose net worth reached more than $500bn in October this year, and Tesla shareholders have recently approved a pay package for him that could be worth nearly $1 trillion.

And yet, Bloomberg says it was Larry Ellison, the Oracle Corp. co-founder and chairman, not Elon Musk, who defined the year 2025. Ellison is currently among the richest people in the world, and, according to Bloomberg, he has played a role in pretty much every major business story of the year, “from the frenzied artificial intelligence boom to the megadeals that are roiling Hollywood”.

Ellison’s net worth soared following a reported $300bn data center deal with OpenAI, which is a five-year cloud computing deal with Oracle due to start in 2027.

Another big gainer was the founder of AI chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, whose total wealth rose to $158bn (up $43.4bn), pushing him into the 9th position in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Huang sold more than $1bn worth of shares this year, profiting from Nvidia’s growing position in the AI chips market. Earlier in October, Nvidia became the first company in the world to reach a market value of $5tn.

The co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are both up $101bn and $92.5bn, respectively, amid Google’s own AI race. The company is exploring the possibility of providing its AI chips to Meta, while Anthropic is planning to expand its use of Google's AI chips, including using up to 1 million processors.

Although US technology leaders largely dominated the rankings this year, there are some other names on the list, too, including Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton; Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; and Jim Walton, the youngest son of Walmart founder.