Trump has given these Americans billions of reasons to be happy

The first year of the second Trump administration was a very happy new year for the US billionaire class. The richest 15 billionaires, all with assets more than $100 billion, saw their combined wealth surge 33 percent, from $2.4 trillion to $3.2 trillion. This is double the growth of the S&P 500 over 2025, which was 16.4 percent.

Over 2025, the combined wealth of all US billionaires climbed to $8.1 trillion, a 21 percent increase over 2025, up from $6.7 trillion exactly a year ago.

Based on an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the Forbes real time billionaire list from 2025, there are 935 billionaires in the United States with combined wealth totaling $8.1 trillion at the close of 2025 markets. This is an increase from 813 US billionaires at end close of 2024 markets, with combined wealth of $6.7 trillion.

The richest three American wealth dynasties — the Waltons, Mars, and Koch families — saw their wealth accelerate from $657.8 billion to $757 billion in one year.

[Note: Bloomberg reportedglobalbillionaire wealth increased $2.2 trillion over 2025, in an analysis released several days before the market closed at 4pm on Dec. 31. The market fluctuated considerably in the final days of 2025.]

The top five current billionaires and their individual wealth on Jan. 1, 2026, compared to Jan. 1, 2025:

1. Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $726 billion, up from $421 billion.
2. Larry Page of Google, with $257 billion, up from $156 billion.
3. Larry Ellison of Oracle with $245.billion, up from $209 billion.
4. Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $242.billion, up from $233.5 billion.
5. Sergey Brin of Google with $237 billion, up from $148.9 billion.

The three wealthiest dynastic families in the US hold an estimated $757 billion, up from $657.8 billion at the end of 2024, a 16 percent gain. These are:

1. Walton — Seven members with combined wealth of $483 billion, up from $404.3 billion.
2. Mars — Six members with combined wealth of $120 billion, down from $130.4 billion.
3. Koch — Two members have a combined wealth of $154.8 billion, up from $121.1 billion.

Many top billionaires have seen their wealth surge during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit at the beginning of 2020.

On March 18, 2020, Musk had wealth valued just under $25 billion. Less than five years later, at the end of 2025, Musk’s wealth is $726 billion, a dizzying 2,800 percent increase from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion on March 18, 2020 to $242 billion at the end of 2025.

Three Walton family members — Jim, Alice, and Rob — saw their combined assets increase from $161.1 billion on March 18, 2020 to $378 billion at the end of 2025.

• Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His newest book is Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power is Ruining Our Lives and Planet (The New Press). His near future novel "Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption. He is author of numerous books and reports on inequality and the racial wealth divide, including “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions,” “Born on Third Base,” and, with Bill Gates Sr., of “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.” See more of his writing at www.chuckcollinswrites.com.