Well, a few months have passed since January, but that list of the wealthiest still remains impressive. The question everyone keeps asking is the same: who is the richest person in the world? Well, in January 2026, the answer was quite clear.

Elon Musk had dominated the list with an estimated net worth of around $726 billion. Honestly, that's a number hard to even imagine. Musk's leap forward was fueled by the growth of SpaceX, the expansion of Starlink, his holdings in Tesla, and his growing influence in AI and neural technology. When you think about who is the richest person in the world, Musk has remained virtually unbeatable, with a historic margin that no individual in modern history had ever achieved before.

After him, the picture filled with other tech giants. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, was in second place with about $270 billion, supported by Alphabet's dominance in artificial intelligence. Jeff Bezos followed in third with $255 billion, thanks to Amazon's stability and the growth of AWS. Then Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg—practically all names tied to the tech sector.

What strikes you when looking at this list is the recurring pattern. Almost all of these ultra-rich individuals made their fortune in technology, and most importantly, they maintained significant stakes in their companies over the years. It’s no coincidence that wealth has become so concentrated in the tech sector.

The factors behind this expansion are quite clear if you think about it. The explosion of artificial intelligence has multiplied the values of major tech companies. The space sector and semiconductors have had extraordinary performance. U.S. tech companies have dominated globally. And most importantly, founders who kept their shares saw their fortunes grow by hundreds of billions.

If you look at the top 10 in January—Musk, Page, Bezos, Brin, Ellison, Zuckerberg, Arnault, Ballmer, Huang, Buffett—you can clearly see how global wealth has concentrated around those who bet on technology and had the patience to hold their positions. It’s a trend that will probably continue.

So, who is the richest person in the world? In January, it was Musk, and the gap between him and the others remains considerable. But what’s even more interesting is how this concentration of wealth reflects global technological shifts. AI, space, semiconductors—these are the sectors reshaping the map of global wealth.