The world's wealthiest men saw a significant increase in their riches last year, with a daily increase of $150 million, according to Oxfam.

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Oxfam has accused the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, of contributing to an oligarchy presidency in the US.
Musk donated significant amounts of money to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The world’s richest men’s wealth increased $150 million an hour last year.

Global wealth inequality soared last year with the world’s richest getting significantly richer while the number of people living in poverty has barely shifted in the last 35 years, according to charity Oxfam.

The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men grew US$100 million ($160 million) an hour on average last year, according to Oxfam’s Takers Not Makers report, published on Monday.

Oxfam has alleged billionaires, including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, have been able to concentrate their wealth due to a “monopolistic concentration of power” and are increasingly “exerting influence over industries and public opinion”.

Billionaire wealth is “largely unearned” — 60 per cent of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections, while colonialism is another major driver of wealth accumulation, according to Oxfam.

The total number of billionaires rose by 204 to 2,769 in just 12 months, according to the Oxfam report, and their total combined wealth jumped from US$12 trillion ($19 trillion) to US$15 trillion ($24 trillion) in that time.

It was the second-largest jump in billionaire wealth since records began.

A graph depicting the number of billionaires globally

Source: SBS News

Meanwhile, the number of people living on less than US$6.85 ($11) a day has barely changed since 1990, according to the World Bank, which sets this number as the global indicator of poverty.

Oxfam said last year the first trillionaire will emerge within the decade, but now says they will appear within the next five years due to the rapid rate of wealth increase among the super-rich.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable,” Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar said in a statement.

“The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, running the world’s largest economy. We present this report as a stark wake up-call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few,” Behar said.

Oxfam accused Musk of “backing and buying” US president-elect Donald Trump,

and made public appearances with him.

The richest 1 per cent of people in Global North countries such as the US, UK and France extracted US$30 million ($48 million) an hour from the Global South through financial systems in 2023, Oxfam says.

The report also highlighted that Africans have on average a life expectancy shorter than Europeans by 15 years.