Billionaires' wealth more than doubles in 10 years: UBS

Billionaires have seen their combined wealth shoot up 121 percent over the past decade to $14 trillion, Swiss bank UBS said Thursday, with tech billionaires' coffers filling the fastest.

Switzerland's biggest bank, which is among the world's largest wealth managers, said the number of dollar billionaires increased from 1,757 to 2,682 over the past 10 years, peaking in 2021 with 2,686.

The 10th edition of UBS's annual Billionaire Ambitions report, which tracks the wealth of the world's richest people, found that billionaires have comfortably outperformed global equity markets over the past decade.

The report documents "the growth and investment of great wealth, as well as how it's being preserved for future generations and used to have a positive effect on society", said Benjamin Cavalli, head of strategic clients at UBS global wealth management.

Between 2015 and 2024, total billionaire wealth increased by 121 percent from $6.3 trillion to $14.0 trillion -- while the MSCI AC World Index of global equities rose 73 percent.

The wealth of tech billionaires increased the fastest, followed by that of billionaire industrialists.

Worldwide, tech billionaires' wealth tripled from $788.9 billion in 2015 to $2.4 trillion in 2024.

"In earlier years, the new billionaires commercialized e-commerce, social media and digital payments; more recently they engineered the generative AI boom, while also developing cyber-security, fintech, 3D printing and robotics," UBS said.

The report found that since 2020, the global growth trend had been slowed due to consolidation among China's billionaires.

From 2015 to 2020, billionaire wealth grew globally at an annual rate of 10 percent, but growth has plunged to one percent since 2020.

Chinese billionaire wealth more than doubled from 2015 to 2020, rising from $887.3 billion to $2.1 trillion, but has since fallen back to $1.8 trillion.

However, North American billionaire wealth has risen 58.5 percent to $6.1 trillion since 2020, "led by industrials and tech billionaires".

Meanwhile billionaires are relocating more frequently, with 176 having moved country since 2020, with Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and the United States being popular destinations.

The heirs and philanthropic causes of baby boomer generation billionaires are set to inherit an estimated $6.3 trillion over the next 15 years, UBS said.