Tech billionaires gain $845 billion in first nine months of 2026

Investing.com -- The world's technology billionaires added a combined $845 billion to their wealth through September 30, marking the largest gain for the first nine months of any year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The roughly 100 technology fortunes among the world's 500 richest people now total $4.6 trillion, representing 36% of the index's wealth while making up only about one-fifth of its members. The gains were driven by the artificial intelligence boom and rising technology stocks, particularly in the United States.

Billionaires who made their fortunes outside technology lost a combined $62 billion over the same period. 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 this has occurred since Bloomberg began tracking billionaires in 2012.

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, added $310 billion to his fortune through the end of September, representing 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.

Michael Dell saw his wealth increase 81% to $254 billion as Dell Technologies Inc. data center sales business expanded. Mark Zuckerberg added $23 billion to his net worth this year as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) gained 27% in September after the company rolled out its new Muse personal AI assistant.

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

Larry Ellison's net worth has fallen $196 billion from September 2025, when he briefly became the world's richest person after gaining $89 billion in a single day. Oracle Corp. credit-default swaps are trading near record highs as investors question the massive borrowing needed to fund its AI infrastructure buildout.

California voters will decide in November whether to levy a wealth tax on the state's billionaires. States including Washington, New York, Illinois and Rhode Island have also discussed new taxes on wealthy residents.

"We talk a lot about the great wealth transfer — but for the top 100 or 1,000 richest, some may be old and own rather traditional businesses, but a lot of them are young tech entrepreneurs," said James Mazeau, an economist at UBS Group AG's chief investment office. "I wonder to what extent that will fuel more wealth concentration."

All seven of Anthropic PBC's co-founders joined the wealth list in June after the AI firm closed a funding round valuing it at $965 billion. Founders of Chinese firms including MiniMax Group Inc.'s Yan Junjie and DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng were also added.

Lin Tsung-chi, founder of King Slide, a Taiwanese maker of server rails and cable management systems for data centers, emerged with a $9.5 billion fortune this year. Wang Xin, chair of Guangdong Dtech Technology Co., joined the wealth index as AI created demand for the specialized drill bits her company makes to assemble circuit boards.

Two heirs of Samsung Electronics Co.'s Lee family, Boo-jin and Seo-hyun, also joined the list due to demand for the company's memory chips. The increase in Samsung's stock price helped the family pay back an $8 billion inheritance tax after former Chairman Lee Kun-hee's death in 2020.

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