The newest edition of the Hurun Global Rich List is out for the year 2026 and things have changed since last year. Most prominently, the global billionaire rankings for the year 2026 have shifted – the total count of billionaires in the world surpassed 4,000 for the first time. This group now includes 4,020 individuals, following a year where two new billionaires were created every single day.
Stock market trends and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence have been the main reasons behind these changes. These changes in the economy have affected the rankings of famous tech founders and changed who makes up the list of the 10 richest people in the world.
According to the 2026 Hurun Global Rich List, the global wealth hierarchy has been completely transformed by the ‘Intelligence Economy.’ While total billionaire wealth increased by 28% this year, most of those gains went to the people controlling the core infrastructure of AI. Based on the latest List, here are the top 10 global billionaires:
Elon Musk
Net worth: $792 Billion
Elon Musk continues to hold the title of the world’s richest man for the fifth time in six years – and this current lead is unprecedented. His net worth surged by 89% this year, largely driven by Tesla’s stock price doubling and a massive re-valuation of SpaceX as it prepares for a record-breaking IPO. Since leaving his advisory role in the U.S. government ten months ago, his wealth has shot up by nearly $500 billion; putting him on track to potentially become the world’s first trillionaire before the end of 2026.
Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $300 Billion
Jeff Bezos has maintained status quo by holding on to second place on the Hurun Global Rich List. He benefitted massively from Amazon’s deepening dominance in AI-powered cloud computing. While the company’s e-commerce platform is it’s cash cow, the ‘Blue Origin boom’ has been a significant secondary engine for his wealth; Amazon recently secured a US$3.4 billion NASA contract for the Blue Moon lunar lander, and the orbital debut of the New Glenn rocket has significantly boosted the private valuation of his aerospace venture.
Larry Page
Net worth: $271 Billion
Larry Page has surged into the Top 3 for the first time in the history of the Hurun list. His wealth increased by 65% as Alphabet’s market valuation shattered the $4 trillion mark. This phenomenal rise is almost entirely attributed to the explosive global adoption of the Gemini AI model and the enterprise growth of Google Cloud. Page has recently stepped back into a more active technical role at Alphabet to steer its AI strategy.
Larry Ellison
Net worth: $267 Billion
Larry Ellison remains a powerhouse, with his net worth jumping 32% this year. Oracle’s aggressive pivot into AI and cloud infrastructure has paid off handsomely, particularly after securing massive data centre contracts from OpenAI. Ellison briefly held the title of World’s Richest Person late last year during a spike in Oracle’s valuation and has recently committed to donating over $1 billion to Oxford University.
Sergey Brin
Net worth: $247 Billion
Mirroring the success of his co-founder, Sergey Brin climbed to 5th place as Alphabet’s stock reached all-time highs. Brin has reportedly moved back into the technical trenches, working directly with AI engineers on foundational code. His fortune, like Page’s, is a direct reflection of the market’s belief that Alphabet has successfully transitioned from a search-first to an AI-first company.
Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $234 Billion
While Zuckerberg’s wealth grew, he dropped out of the Top 5 this year as he was outpaced by the Alphabet founders. Meta’s strategy has focused on open-source AI and the commercial breakout of its Ray-Ban smart glasses. Though his wealth grew by 2%, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the triple-digit gains seen by those providing the underlying hardware and cloud compute for the AI revolution.
Bernard Arnault
Net worth: $178 Billion
The only non-American in the Top 10, Arnault saw a 13% rebound in his fortune this year. LVMH faced headwinds earlier in the year due to weakened luxury demand in China, but Arnault personally repurchased a significant stake in the company to signal confidence. His empire of 75 prestigious brands – including Louis Vuitton and Dior – remains the gold standard for the global luxury market.
Warren Buffett
Net worth: $173 Billion
Despite being 95 years old, Buffett’s wealth grew by 4%, bolstered by record-breaking insurance profits at Berkshire Hathaway. However, he slipped to 8th place because the AI-speed of wealth creation in the tech sector is currently moving faster than traditional value investing. His portfolio remains a flight to safety for many investors, even as the tech titans surge ahead.
Jensen Huang
Net worth: $172 Billion
Jensen Huang is the year’s most notable new entrant to the Top 10. As the CEO of NVIDIA, he sits at the centre of the AI universe; his wealth surged 34% as the company’s valuation crossed the $5 trillion mark. His Blackwell GPU is one of the indispensable backbones of the global intelligence economy today – which makes NVDIA’s role as a hardware supplier all the more critical.
Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $159 Billion
Steve Ballmer rounds out the top 10, with his fortune largely tied to his massive individual stake in Microsoft. As the company continues to lead the way in AI through its work with OpenAI, his net worth has stayed very strong. Outside of the tech world, his ownership of the LA Clippers also adds a major non-tech asset to his multi-billion dollar portfolio.
Where is Bill Gates?
In the 2026 Hurun Global Rich List, Bill Gates has dropped out of the Top 10 for the first time since the list began 15 years ago.
Bill Gates is currently ranked outside the global top 10, sitting at approximately 18th place. Even though the billionaire’s wealth has remained stable with regards to his underlying assets, two major reasons led to him sliding down the rankings:
Massive philanthropy: Gates donated a record-breaking $20 billion last year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This act of giving significantly reduced his personal net worth relative to his peers who are currently seeing massive paper gains in their stock portfolios.
The AI wealth surge: The 2026 list is dominated by individuals who control the hardware and infrastructure of the AI revolution, such as Jensen Huang (NVIDIA) and Larry Page (Alphabet). These AI billionaires saw their wealth grow by 30% to 90% in a single year – effectively leaping over Gates, whose wealth is no longer as tied to high-growth tech stocks as it once was.