The AI boom helped tech titans add a record $845 billion through September, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows. Billionaires outside tech lost a combined $62 billion over the same period.
That gap looks like a roadmap for investors, yet the figures measure fortunes, not stock returns. Some of the wealth comes from private AI developers such as Anthropic, which retail investors cannot buy.
Where Are the Tech Titans’ Gains Actually Landing?
Bloomberg News wealth reporter Dylan Sloan said about 100 of the world’s 500 richest people owe their fortunes to technology.
Sloan pointed to Taiwan’s King Slide, which began in the 1980s making drawer slides. Its slides now go into data center server racks, and its founder entered the index at $9.5 billion.
However, Americans have held all 10 top spots since Sept. 10, a first since Bloomberg began tracking in 2012.
Yet Sloan said more new entrants now come from China, including founders of AI labs such as DeepSeek and MiniMax.
Does a Billionaire Windfall Mean an Investor Return?
Bloomberg values private stakes like public ones, with liquidity discounts on some. It added all seven Anthropic co-founders in June after a funding round valued the company at $965 billion.
S&P Global research found the 10 largest S&P 500 companies held almost 40% of the index by mid-2025. Concentration that high last appeared in the mid-1960s. Standard S&P 500 index funds track those weights.
Historically, size has not guaranteed gains. The same report found the 1965 top 10, then almost half the index, fared poorly over the next 60 years. Even so, the S&P 500 gained about 7.4% a year over that span, excluding dividends.
Meanwhile, Lone Pine Capital’s flagship hedge fund erased almost all of a 44% gain through June after AI bets reversed.
Separately, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio issued an AI bubble warning last week. He ties the risk to AI debt and rising interest rates.
The ranking records fortunes already made, not returns still to come. For index holders, the open question is whether the largest AI-linked stocks keep carrying the S&P 500.
