Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 13, 2025.
Hamad Mohammed | Reuters
Billionaire wealth has soared to a record $18.3 trillion, according to a report by global charity Oxfam released on Monday, which says the ultra-wealthy seek power “for their own benefit.”
The number of billionaires reached more than 3,000 last year, and their combined wealth increased by 16%, or $2.5 trillion, according to the report.
In addition to this, billionaires’ wealth has soared by 81% since 2020, the charity said, calling the past “a good decade for billionaires”.
The rich have gotten wealthier, but poverty reduction has slowed and levels are “almost the same as in 2019,” the charity’s news release said.
Oxfam also said the ultra-rich often use their wealth to secure political power and media ownership, pointing to billionaire Elon Musk’s involvement in the US administration in early 2025, Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post, and billionaire Vincent Bollore’s acquisition of French news site C News.
“The immense influence that the ultra-rich have over our politicians, businesses and media has deepened inequality and taken us far off track in fighting poverty,” Oxfam director general Amitabh Behar said in the charity’s report, “Resistance to the Domination of the Rich: Defending Freedom from the Power of Billionaires.”
The charity has published its inequality report every year since 2014 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Last year, Oxfam predicted that the world would have at least five trillionaires within 10 years and called for global tax policies to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.
Some 65 heads of state and 850 CEOs will attend this year’s Davos conference, which begins on Monday, with US President Donald Trump scheduled to address delegates on Wednesday.
“The widening gap between the rich and the rest… is creating a very dangerous and unsustainable political deficit,” Behar said.
“I am angry that governments are making the wrong choice to protect their wealth by pandering to elites while suppressing people’s rights, making life unaffordable and intolerable for so many people,” Behar said.
In 2025, President Trump’s “Big and Beautiful Bill” introduces several tax cuts for the wealthy, with those earning more than $1 million expected to see their incomes increase by about 3%.
Meanwhile, a 2023 report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity says most Americans can no longer afford to maintain a “minimum quality of life.” About 10% of Americans will be living in poverty in 2024, according to U.S. Census data released in September.
Oxfam called on governments to develop national inequality reduction plans, tax the super-rich to reduce their power and prioritize stronger “firewalls” between politics and wealth, as well as provide stronger protections for freedom of expression.
The report was released as more than 2,500 people have been killed in Iran since protests against the long-running economic crisis began last month. Oxfam said there were more than 140 “serious” anti-government protests in 68 countries last year, with authorities “usually responding with violence”.
“Economically poor breeds hunger. Politically poor breeds anger,” Behar said.
The Oxfam report said rich countries are “cutting aid even more rapidly than before.” These cuts, including the closure of USAID, could result in an additional 14 million deaths by 2030, the charity said.
-CNBC’s April Roach contributed to this report.
