Israelis included: Forbes’ billionaires list breaks records again

It's raining money — Photo: Shutterstock / Maslowski Marcin

Forbes released its 39th annual global billionaires list yesterday (Tuesday). A record-breaking 3,028 individuals made the list this year—247 more than last year. This marks the first time the billionaire population has surpassed 3,000. Collectively, these billionaires are worth $16.1 trillion, $2 trillion more than last year and exceeding the GDP of every country except the United States and China. The average billionaire’s net worth now stands at $5.3 billion, up $200 million from 2024.

There are currently 15 people worth over $100 billion: these 15 centi-billionaires collectively hold $2.4 trillion. Among them, three individuals are worth more than $200 billion: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos.
Donlad Trump made it, too
Only a few billionaires had a better year than Donald Trump, his wealth more than doubled from $2.3 billion to $5.1 billion. Meanwhile, 107 individuals from last year’s ranking dropped off, including AMD CEO Lisa Su and Hermès luxury brand heir Nicolas Puech, who claims “his fortune disappeared.” Past reports estimated his wealth at $13 billion.
Musk got even richer over the past year
Elon Musk’s estimated net worth is $342 billion. Despite spending much of his time leading DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk added $147 billion to his fortune in the past year, thanks to SpaceX and his AI company xAI (which merged with Twitter last week). Even Tesla, despite recent declines, is trading higher than last year. This allowed Musk to maintain a $126 billion lead over the second-ranked Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is estimated at “only” $216 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ranks third with $215 billion, while Oracle’s Larry Ellison is fourth with $192 billion. Bernard Arnault ($178 billion), founder, chairman, and CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, dropped to fifth—his lowest ranking since 2017.
The United States has 902 billionaires—more than anywhere else in the world. China, including Hong Kong, follows with 516 billionaires, and India ranks third with 205. Overall, 50% of the list’s billionaires are citizens of the U.S., India, or China. Seventy-six countries and two semi-autonomous territories have at least one billionaire, including Albania for the first time, with entrepreneur and businessman Samir Mane, involved in real estate, finance, and tourism in the country.

Israeli Billionaires

Subscribe to our newsletter

The list includes dozens of Israeli citizens, such as Eyal Ofer, ranked 68th with $28.2 billion. Idan Ofer is ranked 89th with $22.5 billion. Miriam Adelson ranks 56th with a fortune of $32.1 billion. Jewish billionaire Len Blavatnik is 59th with $29.9 billion. Jewish billionaire Steven Cohen, one of Wall Street’s most successful hedge fund managers, ranks 95th with $21.3 billion. Yitzhak Tshuva, Shari Arison, Arnon Milchan, Gil Shwed, and Teddy Sagi are ranked within the top thousand.

Also on the list are Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak, the four founders of cloud security company WIZ, each with an estimated net worth of around $2.2 billion. The company is being sold to Google for approximately $32 billion, marking Google’s largest acquisition ever and the biggest in Israel’s history.

Among the Israelis in the top thousand (ranked 846) is Shaul Shani, a co-founder of the Israeli-Brazilian telecom company GVT, with an estimated worth of $4.3 billion.

A new name on the list is Oren Holtzman, with a fortune of $1 billion. He and his sister Shiran Holtzman-Erel founded Audity Tech in 2018 (45.02, +4.07%), which now owns the beauty brand IL Makiage. The company went public in 2023 at a valuation of $2 billion.

Jerry Seinfeld Joins the Ranks, Alongside AI Tycoons

The annual ranking includes 288 new names, such as Bruce Springsteen ($1.2 billion), Arnold Schwarzenegger ($1.1 billion), and Jerry Seinfeld ($1.1 billion). AI tycoons from companies like DeepSeek and Anthropic also made their debut. With a net worth of $31 billion, Marilyn Simons, widow of legendary investor Jim Simons who passed away in May 2024, is the wealthiest new addition. Industrialist Stef Wertheimer, who died last week at 98, appears at 418th, as the list was finalized before his death.

Only 406 women are on the list—13.4%, a slight increase from last year. Nearly three-quarters of the list’s members inherited their wealth, including the world’s richest woman, Walmart heiress Alice Walton ($101 billion), who surpassed French L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers ($81.6 billion). Only 113 women on the billionaires list built their fortunes themselves—the richest, with $37.7 billion (ranked 44th), is Israeli-Italian Rafaela Aponte-Diamante, born in Haifa before her family immigrated to Switzerland. Aponte-Diamante holds a major stake in the MSC shipping group alongside her husband, Gianluigi Aponte.

Sixty-seven percent of the list’s members are self-made billionaires rather than inheritors, an increase of one percent from 2024. The youngest among them is Alexander Wang, co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, aged 28, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion. Wang is one of only 21 billionaires aged 30 or younger, including 19-year-old Johannes von Baumbach, worth $5.4 billion, the world’s youngest billionaire. Von Baumbach is an heir to Boehringer Ingelheim, the world’s largest privately held pharmaceutical company.

The oldest billionaire is American businessman George Joseph, with an estimated fortune of $1.9 billion. Joseph is one of four billionaires over 100.

Globes contributed to this article.