By one measure at least, Australia is falling behind the world: the growth in the wealth of our billionaires. But how can our obscenely rich citizens, who are on average each adding $600,000 per day to their coffers or 3 per cent a year, be trailing their international peers?
Globally the 48 Australians that are members of the rarefied billionaires club – which minted eight new local members last year – grew their wealth by around $10.5 billion in 2025. While that’s an enormous amount, it’s less than the yearly gains that some, such as Elon Musk and Larry Ellison, enjoyed on their own.
The increase in wealth concentration associated with the rise in the mega-rich is most often a proxy for inequality. So falling a few notches on the billionaires index isn’t something Australians should see as a poor grade mark.
No Australian government that wants to boost its bona fides for dealing with a cost of living crisis, crippling rents or mortgage stress would be advertising the financial gains made by the mega wealthy.
Indeed, although the wealth of billionaires surged by 16 per cent globally in 2025, the reduction in poverty is now stalling.
World wealth accumulation by billionaires was turbocharged last year, growing three times faster than the average of the past five years. Together, these 3000 individuals account for an unthinkable $US18.3 trillion according to an Oxfam report to be delivered at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. The sharpest growth in fortunes has been experienced among the US billionaires.
These billionaires earn $3.2 million per day on average and for the 10 richest, the amount swells to $150 million each day.
But Australia is missing the two vital ingredients on the menu that promote the disproportionate bolstering of its super rich getting super richer. The first is a strong technology industry, particularly one focused on artificial intelligence, and the second is President Donald Trump.
The past year or two in particular has given rise to a breed of technology billionaires that have dominated the corporate world with stakes in companies with multi-trillion dollar plus valuations.
At the same time we have seen ample evidence of these people courting Trump.
Musk has flirted with a net worth of a trillion dollars but that could be just the start. Oxfam predicted that five or more trillionaires are currently gestating and will reach that mark within a decade.
But a heads up: they won’t be in Australia, where the majority of billion dollar fortunes have been off the back of property and mining with a smattering of retail.
Oxfam argues that actions of the Trump administration, including the championing of deregulation and undermining of global agreements to increase corporate taxation, have benefited the richest around the world. For example, the demise of a minimum tax rate for global corporates has benefited all rich shareholders, not just those in the US or those invested in US corporations.
But Trump’s pro-billionaire agenda is just one piece of the puzzle, says Oxfam, which believes that this trend is emblematic of rising global inequality and the growing influence of oligarchs over our economic and political systems. Instead of pulling the levers of power behind the scenes, the richest are becoming more brazen, stepping forward into the centre stage.
“The outsized influence that the super-rich have over our politicians, economies and media has deepened inequality and led us far off track on tackling poverty,” said Oxfam’s executive director Amitabh Behar in the charity’s report, titled Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power.
And it is the mega rich and politically powerful that will populate the town of Davos this week to tackle the world’s social and economic issues.
Sadly, the rise of the super wealthy may not take centre stage ahead of the geo-political ructions unleashed by Trump.
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