Oxfam reports that global billionaire wealth rose 16% in 2025 to a record $18.3 trillion, an 81% jump since 2020, while global poverty and food insecurity persist. The charity warns that this wealth surge has coincided with a dramatic increase in political influence — billionaires are about 4,000 times more likely to hold office — and links the trend partly to policy shifts in the U.S. and booming AI valuations. Oxfam calls for national inequality plans, higher taxes on extreme wealth and stronger barriers between money and politics.
Oxfam: Billionaire Wealth Soars to Record $18.3T in 2025, Deepening Political Influence
FILE PHOTO: The skyline of Lower Manhattan is seen at dawn from across the Hudson River in New York City, U.S., October 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs/File Photo
Billionaire fortunes surged at three times their recent pace last year, reaching a record $18.3 trillion and widening economic and political gaps that Oxfam warns threaten democratic stability.
Key Findings
In a report published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam said global billionaire wealth rose 16% in 2025 — extending an 81% increase since 2020 — even as one in four people worldwide struggle to eat regularly and nearly half the global population lives in poverty.
The charity’s analysis, which draws on academic studies and datasets including the World Inequality Database and Forbes' rich list, concludes that the financial boom has been accompanied by a striking concentration of political influence: billionaires are roughly 4,000 times more likely than ordinary citizens to hold political office.
Oxfam links much of the latest surge to policy changes under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration, including tax cuts, reduced pressure on multinational corporations and lighter scrutiny of monopolies. Soaring valuations in artificial intelligence companies have also produced substantial windfall gains for already wealthy investors.
"The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable," Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar said.
Policy Recommendations
Oxfam urged governments to adopt national plans to reduce inequality, impose higher taxes on extreme wealth and establish stronger firewalls between money and politics, such as tighter limits on lobbying and campaign finance. Wealth taxes are currently in place in only a few countries (for example, Norway), although debates over similar measures have taken place in Britain, France and Italy.
The Nairobi-based charity calculated that the roughly $2.5 trillion added to billionaires' fortunes in 2025 is approximately equal to the combined wealth held by the poorest 4.1 billion people. The global billionaire count topped 3,000 for the first time last year, and Elon Musk became the first individual to exceed $500 billion in net worth.
The report also highlights the expanding control of ultra-wealthy individuals over media: Oxfam says billionaires now own more than half of the world’s major media companies, citing holdings by Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Patrick Soon-Shiong and France's Vincent Bolloré.
Oxfam warned that these trends — growing economic concentration and increasing political power among the ultra-wealthy — risk shaping public policy in ways that favor elites, including cuts to aid budgets and rollbacks of civil liberties.
(Source: Oxfam report; reporting adapted from Reuters)
Help us improve.
