After adding $578.6 billion to their wealth in 2025, the 10 richest people in the world are starting 2026 out with a struggle. Six of the top 10 richest people in the world have lost net wealth in 2026. Here’s a look at the updated list.
Top 10 Richest People
Billionaire Elon Musk could change the game in 2026, potentially becoming the first trillionaire if SpaceX finally goes public. While that remains to be seen, Musk is currently carrying the top 10 richest people, who have seen minimal wealth gains, or in some cases wealth losses.
Here are the 10 richest people in the world, as reported by Bloomberg, and their year-to-date changes:
- Elon Musk: $677 billion, +$57.6 billion
- Larry Page: $281 billion, +$11.6 billion
- Sergey Brin: $261 billion, +$10.7 billion
- Jeff Bezos: $254 billion, +$298 million
- Larry Ellison: $226 billion, -$21.7 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg: $217 billion, -$16.2 billion
- Bernard Arnault: $190 billion, -$18.0 billion
- Steve Ballmer: $156 billion, -$12.6 billion
- Jensen Huang: $152 billion, -$2.7 billion
- Warren Buffett: $146 billion, -$5.8 billion
Together, the top 10 billionaires are worth $2.56 trillion, slightly ahead of the $2.55 trillion they were worth at the end of 2025.
While six of the top 10 have lost wealth in 2026, the overall top 10 have gained $3.2 billion in 2026. This is, of course, thanks in large part to Musk’s $57.6 billion gain.
Stock Market Starts 2026 With Struggles
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSE:SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, is up less than 1% year-to-date in 2026. This follows 2025, when the ETF gained 16.6%, and all of the top 10 billionaires posted positive gains for the year.
Helping Musk’s wealth is soaring valuations for xAI and SpaceX, as Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock trades nearly flat in 2026.
Alphabet Inc(NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the top gaining Magnificent Seven stock in 2025 and the stock is up around 5% year-to-date in 2026. Co-founders Page and Brin were among the top jumpers on the top 10 list last year and Brin moved up another position to third in 2026, passing Bezos.
Bezos is up around $300 million with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) among the Magnificent Seven stocks that are positive year-to-date.
Ellison, who was one of the top gainers in 2025, is currently the biggest dropper in 2026 wealth year-to-date. This comes with Oracle Corporation(NYSE:ORCL) shares down 9% year-to-date.
Zuckerberg is another of the biggest wealth losers early in 2026, as Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) stock is down year-to-date.
Ballmer is down $12.6 billion in 2026 with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock down 5.4% year-to-date. Ballmer is the former CEO of the tech company.
Huang has been one of the top wealth gainers in recent years thanks to the historic gains of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock. The Nvidia CEO and co-founder is down $2.7 billion in 2026 with Nvidia stock down 1.8% early to start the year.
The 2026 year is less than one month old, and these billionaires could all end the year on a positive note. The last two years have seen the top 10 billionaires add $578.6 billion (2025) and $518 billion (2024) to their wealth. Based on the current list, those amounts could be tough to top.