Trump’s ally Elon Musk lost $100 billion, but Warren Buffett gained. What’s he seeing that no one else is?

Stock market veteran Warren Buffett and tech billionaire Bill Gates are the only two people among the top 100 or even 500 richest who made money this year. The rout in global markets, particularly the US, meant that all the other billionaires, from Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerburg, have seen a significant dip in their wealth.

Warren Buffett’s wealth has increased by $23 billion in 2025 to reach around $165 billion. This strong surge along with a dip of others catapulted the market tycoon into the top five wealthiest list, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The jump in Buffett’s wealth is closely associated with the rise in hi Berkshire Hathaway’s shares, which jumped as much as 18% this year. This is when the Nasdaq composite slumped 5%. This stock rally this year was fuelled by conglomerate’s strong earnings and improvement in insurance operations.

Berkshire Hathaway is currently holding record cash of $325 billion after unloading billions of dollars worth of Apple and Bank of America shares last year. This cash chest is bigger than the combined reserves of tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia Corp.

Bill Gates, with an increase of $3 billion in his net worth this year, is a close second to Warren Buffett among the people who saw their wealth increase. However, the founder of Microsoft, once the richest in the world, slipped to sixth place in the coveted billionaires list.

Conventional Wisdom suggested that Elon Musk’s friendly ties with US President Donald Trump will actually be beneficial to him. On the contrary, Musk’s net worth took a massive hit by dropping over $100 billion this year. This plunge is the worst among all the billionaires compiled by Bloomberg.The stunning reversal of fortunes for Musk, who was seen as the poster boy of America’s innovation and entrepreneurship, was mostly due to a 30% fall in Tesla stock price year-to-date.Relentless protests in many countries against the billionaire’s involvement in Trump’s administration and far-right politics in Europe have tarnished the image of the once-leading electric vehicle brand. Tesla posted a 13% drop in quarterly deliveries in the January-March period, the weakest in nearly three years.

The muted fortunes of various other tech billionaires are also related to the performance of the US stock market, which has been in a tailspin on recession fears. Investors fled from risky assets, seeking the safety of government bonds, after Trump slapped tariff after tariff on most US imports and much higher levies on dozens of other countries.

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