The AI boom is minting fortunes faster than most people can learn the founders’ names. Seventeen new AI billionaires across the US and China grew their combined wealth by $87 billion in the first nine months of 2026, reaching $221 billion in total.
The figures come from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as highlighted in a post by @KobeissiLetter on X.
Twelve Americans, five Chinese founders, one very good year
The US contingent is the larger group. Twelve Americans who joined the global 500 richest list saw their combined net worth climb by $44 billion, landing at $132 billion by September 2026.
China’s group is smaller but punches well above its weight. Five new Chinese AI billionaires added $43 billion together, bringing their cumulative total to $89 billion.
Run the comparison and something stands out. The Chinese cohort had fewer than half as many people as the American one, yet its gains came within a billion dollars of matching the US group.
On the American side, the headliners include seven co-founders of Anthropic. The AI lab was valued at approximately $965 billion in a June 2026 funding round, which goes a long way toward explaining how seven people can show up on a global rich list at once.
The Chinese names include Yan Junjie of MiniMax and Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek.
The broader tech wealth surge
The new AI billionaires are only one slice of a much larger story. About 100 people from the technology sector on the global top 500 list gained a record $845 billion through September 30, 2026, according to the same Bloomberg data.
Everyone else had a rougher time. Non-tech fortunes on the list shrank by $62 billion over the same period.
Geography matters here too. Americans captured 94% of the net gains, per the Bloomberg figures.
For the first time since Bloomberg began tracking in 2012, all of the top ten richest people in the world are based in the US.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.