Billionaires’ wealth rose three times faster than last year to reach its highest level on record, deepening economic and political divisions that threaten democratic stability, anti-poverty group Oxfam said Monday.
In a report released at the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the charity said the fortune of global billionaires rose 16% in 2025 to $18.3 trillion, extending an 81% rise since 2020.
The advances came despite the fact that one in four people in the world have difficulty eating regularly and almost half of the world’s population lives in poverty.
The Oxfam study, which draws on academic research and data sources ranging from the Global Inequality Database to the Forbes Rich List, argues that the rise in wealth is being accompanied by a dramatic concentration of political influence, and that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely than ordinary citizens to hold political office.
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The group links the latest surge in wealth to the policies of US President Donald Trump, whose second administration has cut taxes, shielded multinational corporations from international pressure and made it easier to scrutinize monopolies.
Rising valuations of AI companies have added more windfalls for already wealthy investors.
“The growing gap between the rich and the rest is simultaneously creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable,” said Oxfam executive director Amitabh Behar.
Oxfam urged governments to adopt national plans to reduce inequality, impose higher taxes on extreme wealth and strengthen barriers between money and politics, including restrictions on lobbying and campaign financing.
Wealth taxes currently apply in only a few countries, such as Norway, but others, from Britain to France to Italy, have debated similar measures.
The Nairobi-based charity estimates that the $2.5 trillion added to billionaires’ fortunes last year is roughly equal to the stock of wealth held by the poorest 4.1 billion people.
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The global population of billionaires surpassed 3,000 for the first time last year, and Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, became the first individual to surpass $500 billion in net worth.
Behar warned that governments are “making wrong decisions to please the elite,” pointing to aid cuts and shrinking civil liberties.
The report highlights what it calls the growing control of ultra-rich business figures over traditional and digital media.
Billionaires now own more than half of the world’s top media companies, Oxfam said, citing the stakes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Patrick Soon-Shiong and France’s Vincent Bolloré.
With information from Reuters
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