Surging billionaire wealth a political threat, Oxfam warns

LONDON

Protesters take part in a demonstration against the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the eve of the WEF annual meeting in Davos on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The collective wealth of the planet's billionaires soared to a record level in 2025, charity Oxfam reported Monday, warning of "highly dangerous" political consequences as the global elite gathers for the World Economic Forum.

U.S. President Donald Trump's policies in particular spurred the fortunes of the ultra-rich, which jumped 16.2 percent in the first year of his second term to $18.3 trillion, the NGO said in a report released each year ahead of the Davos forum.

"Actions of the Trump presidency including the championing of deregulation and undermining agreements to increase corporate taxation have benefited the richest around the world," Oxfam said.

The world now has more than 3,000 billionaires for the first time, it added, with the top 12 — led by Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk — having "more wealth than the poorest half of humanity, or more than four billion people".

Increasingly this money is buying political power, Oxfam said, pointing in particular to tycoons' buying newspapers and other media, such as Musk's takeover of X or the purchase of The Washington Post by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

"The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable," Oxfam's executive director Amitabh Behar said.

Trump will arrive with one of the biggest U.S. delegations ever for the Davos conference, where he is expected to dominate an agenda officially billed as "A Spirit of Dialogue".