The wave of AI billionaires

VTV.vn - In less than three years, the world has witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon: artificial intelligence (AI) has become the fastest "billionaire-making machine" in the history of technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not only changing how humans work, create, and make decisions, but it is also reshaping the global wealth map. In less than three years since the explosion of AI-generated models, the world has witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon: AI has become the fastest "billionaire-making machine" in technological history.

Illustrative image (Image created using AI)

AI "created" over 50 new billionaires in just one year.

In 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) will be a hot topic of discussion. According to Forbes statistics, more than 50 individuals will join the ranks of the world's billionaires in 2025, with their wealth directly or indirectly linked to AI.

In January 2025, DeepSeek's open-source model – a Chinese AI startup trained with significantly lower computing power than major US AI companies – shook the financial markets and made its founder, Liang Wenfeng, a billionaire. His net worth is estimated to reach approximately $11.5 billion by December 2025.

In the early months of 2025, Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model, raised $3.5 billion in investment capital, valuing the company at $61.5 billion and making all seven co-founders billionaires. The company went on to raise a total of $16.5 billion from investors throughout 2025, raising its valuation to $183 billion by September 2025.

(Photo: cryptotimes)

The race to develop AI isn't limited to models or data centers. The talent war among tech companies, with attractive compensation packages to lure top AI experts, peaked in June 2025 when Meta acquired a 49% stake in data labeling startup Scale AI for over $14 billion. As part of the deal, CEO and co-founder Alexandr Wang, 28, who became a billionaire for the first time in 2022 thanks to his stake in Scale, joined Meta as Chief AI Officer. This deal valued Scale AI at approximately $29 billion, making Wang's co-founder Lucy Guo (then 30 years old) the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion (she left the company in 2018 but retained her shares).

In September 2025, OpenAI's launch of Sora 2 sparked a social media frenzy with AI-generated images and videos . Billions of dollars were poured into startups researching multimodal AI formats including images, video, and audio. Notably, ElevenLabs co-founders Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski became billionaires in 2025 after their AI-powered audio startup raised $100 million, valuing the company at $6.6 billion in October 2025.

OpenAI's Sora 2 app allows users to create AI-generated videos based on a piece of text entered into their device. (Image: Algi Febri Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (who also became a billionaire thanks to AI) stated that up to 30% of the company's source code is written by AI. Anysphere, a company selling the AI ​​programming tool Cursor, reached a valuation of $29 billion in November 2025, making four of its co-founders billionaires. Businesses that strongly utilize AI, such as video game company Paper Games, language translation software TransPerfect, and Chinese AI robot manufacturer Orbbec, have also helped their founders become billionaires.

The common thread among this new group of billionaires is their extremely short wealth accumulation period. Many took only 3-5 years, or even less than 24 months, to go from unknown founders to USD billionaires – something almost impossible in traditional industries.

The new "money printing machine" for the tech elite.

Figures published by the Financial Times and The Guardian show that, in the period of 2024-2025 alone, the AI ​​wave has added approximately $500-600 billion to the net worth of American tech billionaires – an unprecedented increase, even during the boom of the internet or smartphones.

According to Bloomberg, the top 10 founders and leaders of the largest US technology companies have seen their combined wealth increase from $1.9 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of December 25, 2025. Leading the pack remains Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. In 2025, Musk's wealth is projected to increase by nearly 50%, reaching $645 billion, allowing him to maintain his position as the world's richest person. Musk also garnered attention when Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion compensation package, the largest in the company's history, amidst SpaceX's valuation of up to $800 billion. He could become the world's first trillionaire if he achieves Tesla's strategic goals.

(Photo: Forbes)

Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker NVIDIA, has become the most prominent symbol of the AI ​​era. The explosive demand for graphics chips and specialized processors for AI has driven NVIDIA's market capitalization to record levels, boosting Huang's personal wealth by $41.8 billion in just one year.

Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (CEO of Alphabet/Google), and Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) have all seen their personal wealth increase significantly by making early bets on generative AI, cloud computing, and data centers. Microsoft and Google, in particular, not only sell AI products but also profit from "intelligence leasing fees," as global businesses are forced to purchase access to AI models, infrastructure, and platforms.

According to the Financial Times, AI has created a closed value chain, where profits are heavily concentrated in chips, cloud computing, and core AI models. This explains why the wealth of tech CEOs is growing much faster than the rest of the economy .

Economic balance in the new era

The wave of AI billionaires is not a fleeting phenomenon but a structural consequence of the digital economy. AI requires massive investment in chips, data, and infrastructure – elements that only large corporations can afford to control. When the "input" is concentrated, the "output"—profit—is also difficult to disperse.

According to the Washington Post, AI risks recreating global inequality as the majority of profits continue to flow to corporations and shareholders in the US and Europe, while recipient countries primarily play the role of providing labor and markets. At the national level, AI may boost GDP growth, but at the individual level, the gap between rich and poor is widening. While AI billionaires are increasing their wealth by billions of dollars each month, many labor groups face the risk of being replaced or forced to retrain in a short period of time.

Illustrative image (Image created using AI)

The Financial Times quotes experts warning that without proper regulation, AI could exacerbate income inequality and economic power imbalances. Proposals under discussion include: appropriately taxing the massive profits from AI; increasing transparency in the use of AI data and models; and investing heavily in retraining the workforce to ensure that the benefits of AI do not accrue solely to employers.

The "AI billionaire wave" clearly reflects the economic power of artificial intelligence in the 21st century. From established billionaires to entirely new faces, AI is rewriting the global wealth creation narrative at an unprecedented pace. With its current rate of development, AI is likely to continue to be the field creating the most billionaires in the next decade, while also being the most fiercely competitive area among nations, businesses, and individuals.

Source: https://vtv.vn/lan-song-ty-phu-ai-100260120131558968.htm