Billionaires’ wealth grew more than stock markets in 10 years, study says

The total wealth of billionaires has grown more than the stock markets in the last 10 years, according to a global report released this Thursday (5) by UBS. According to the study, the wealth of these super financially successful people increased by 121% between 2015 and 2024, going from US$6.3 trillion to US$14.0 trillion.

For comparison purposes, UBS used the variation of the MSCI AC World Index – which measures the equity performance of more than 3,000 stocks from developed and emerging markets – which recorded a smaller percentage gain of 73% over the same period.

In the UBS billionaires tracker, Brazil occupies second place in the Americas, with the number rising from 45, in 2023, to 60, in 2024. The total is only behind the USA, which went from 751 to 835.

The total value accumulated by Brazilian billionaires grew 37.7% in one year, from US$112.5 billion to US$154.9 billion. But in this aspect, in addition to the USA (US$5.8 trillion), Brazil is behind Mexico (US$199.7 billion) and Canada (US$213.3 billion).

China and USA

According to the study “Billionaire Ambitions Report 2024”, the aggregate wealth of China’s billionaires increased at a rate of more than 20% per year from 2015 to 2020, but has since shrunk by 5% per year.

“The country’s dynamic entrepreneurs have engaged in building new cities and created e-commerce empires for a mobile-first market of 1.4 billion people. Since 2020, however, the campaign for common prosperity and the stricter regulatory environment have been accompanied by a decline in China’s share of global stock market indices,” says UBS.

In contrast, the wealth of American billionaires continued to accumulate. From 2015 to 2020, it grew 52.7%, from US$2.5 trillion to US$3.8 trillion. And, from 2020 to 2024, it increased 58.5%, to US$6.1 trillion, led by industrial and technology billionaires.

Technology and industry lead

The report highlights that it is no surprise that the wealth of technology billionaires has grown faster over 10 years, but it is surprising to see the progress of their industrial peers.

The wealth of technology billionaires has tripled, from $789 billion in 2015 to $2.4 trillion in 2024. Meanwhile, industrial billionaires have increased their wealth by the second largest amount – from $480 billion to $1.3 trillion.

Concentration

Just as some big U.S. technology stocks account for a larger amount of global stock market capitalization than they did 10 years ago, billionaires’ wealth has also become moderately more concentrated.

Mirroring stock markets, part of the explanation lies in the evolution of technology businesses developing AI and the innovators behind them.

Consequently, technology billionaires currently have the greatest wealth, at US$70.6 billion. However, there are a relatively small number of them.

But even beyond tech billionaires, wealth is becoming a little more concentrated: In 2015, the 100 richest billionaires accounted for 32.4% of all billionaire wealth. In 2024, the 100 largest represented 36%.

Unsurprisingly, North America hosts the highest percentage of the top 100 – 43% live there. Only 21% live in Western Europe, followed by 15% in Southeast Asia (including India) and 8% in China.