How do billionaires avoid paying taxes? Here’s what we know now.
The super wealthy can afford to avoid paying taxes, but how? Here’s what we know now.
He flew to the top this year, but not by way of rocket.
According to Forbes 2025 annual Billionaire’s List, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now reigns king of the richest people on earth, towering over the second wealthiest person on the planet by $126 billion.
With a net worth of $342 billion, the South African-born Canadian-American business magnate has ownership stakes in social media platform X, and has also served key roles with PayPal and Neuralink.
Placing second on the list: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($216 billion) followed immediately by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($215 billion).
The list, according to Forbes, consists of 3,028 billionaires worth a combined $16.1 trillion. According to Forbes, America has the most billionaires, followed by China and India.
The American business magazine said it calculated its numbers using March 7 stock prices and exchange rates.
The top 25 richest people ranged in age from 40 to 94.
Among them: entrepreneurs, tech founders, cosmetic gurus, investors and heirs.
Two are from France, one is from Spain, one is from Mexico, one is from India, one is from Singapore and one is from the United Arab Emirates. The remaining 18 billionaires in the top 25 live in the United States.
Here are the world’s 25 richest people and their net worth, as reported by Forbes.
Top 25 richest people in the world, per Forbes
- Elon Musk, 53: $342 billion – Tesla – United States
- Mark Zuckerberg, 40: $216 billion – Meta – United States
- Jeff Bezos, 61: $215 billion – Amazon – United States
- Lawrence Ellison, 80: $192 billion – Oracle – United States
- Bernard Arnault, 76: $178 billion – LVMH – France
- Warren Buffett, 94: $154 billion – Berkshire Hathaway – United States
- Lawrence Page, 52: $144 billion – Alphabet – United States
- Sergey Brin, 51: $138 billion – Alphabet – United States
- Amancio Ortega, 89: $124 billion – Zara – Spain
- Steven Ballmer, 69: $118 billion – Microsoft – United States
- Samuel Robson Walton, 80: $110- Walmart – United States
- Jim Walton, 76: $109 billion – Walmart – United States
- Bill Gates, 69: $108 billion – Microsoft – United States
- Michael Bloomberg, 83: $105 billion – Bloomberg – United States
- Alice Walton, 75: $101 billion – Walmart – United States
- Jensen Huang, 62: $98.7 billion – Nvidia – United States
- Michael Dell, 60: $97.7 billion – Dell Technologies – United States
- Mukesh Ambani, 67: $92.5 billion – Reliance Industries – India
- Carlos Slim Helu, 85: $82.5 billion – Telecom – Mexico
- Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 71: $81.6 billion – L’Oreal – France
- Julia Koch, 62: $74.2 billion – Koch – United States
- Charles Koch, 89: $67.5 billion – Koch – United States
- Zhang Yiming, 41: $65.5 billion – TikTok – Singapore
- Changpeng Zhao, 48: $62.9 billion – Cryptocurrency exchange – United Arab Emirates
- Jeff Yass, 66: $59 billion – Trading and investments – United States
To see the complete list, visit Forbes and click here.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
