The year 2025 will go down in history as an unprecedented year in the artificial intelligence sector, and according to Forbes, there are new billionaires.
AI-driven investment wave reached $202 billionan increase of 75% compared to the previous year, and generated 50 new billionaires around the world. Most come from foundation model companies, SaaS companies, and businesses dedicated to replacing human workers with AI in the service and manufacturing sectors.
Among the most notable names joining the billionaire club are Bret Taylorformer Facebook executive, and Clay Bavorformer Google executive, founders of the startup Sierra, which raised $350 million this year.
The youngest ones also stand out as Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midhafounders of the recruiting firm Mercor, as well as Liang Wenfeng, founder of the startup DeepSeek.
Global investment in foundation model companies has so far raised $80 billion by 2025representing around 40% of all AI investment. Giants like OpenAI and Anthropic together they captured 14% of all venture investment in the sector during the year.
Among the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page y Jensen Huang. Musk, already the richest person in the world, saw his wealth increase to $645 billion, almost 50% more, becoming the first person to exceed $500 billion in personal wealth.
For his part, the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huangincreased its assets by $41.8 billion to $159 billion, driven by growing demand for AI accelerators in data centers.
The founders of Google and Amazon, Larry Page and Jeff Bezosalso posted substantial gains, reaching $270 billion and $255 billion, respectively.
In the midst of a complicated labor market, with high inflation and high cost of living for the middle class, AI has become the engine that concentrates wealth in a handful of billionaires.