The world’s top earners are now worth over a whopping $10 trillion. Last year was witness to an unprecedented surge in the wealth of the world’s 500 richest individuals.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as reported by RT, the combined net worth of the world’s 500 top earners is at a record high. While inflation plagues the lower and middle classes, and taxation pushes them closer toward economic failure, the wealthiest humans are amassing wealth at an unprecedented rate.

Tech billionaires like Elon Musk lead the way. Musk is now an embedded member of the ruling class and will be a part of Donald Trump’s administration after inauguration later this month.

The total value of the fortunes tracked by the index stood at $9.8 trillion on Monday, December 30, down slightly from a December 11 peak of $10.1 trillion. This figure is similar in size to the combined GDPs of Germany, Japan, and Australia, according to data from the World Bank.

According to the index, the most significant gains came from tech titans, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jensen Huang. The ten top earners list also includes Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The eight jointly gained more than $600 billion this year, 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the index. –RT

Most of the world’s top earners benefited from investing in the United States stock market, and got benefits from its rally, Bloomberg noted. The S&P 500 Index gained 24% through the end of the year, and the “Magnificent 7”, which includes Apple, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, Microsoft, and Nvidia, accounted for more than half of the benchmark’s performance.

Donald Trump’s election victory also had a positive effect on those on Bloomberg’s index, boosting both stocks and digital assets. Combined, the 500 listed billionaires gained $505 billion in the five weeks following the election, or a third of their total for the year. With Elon Musk aiding Donald Trump, is this really a surprise to anyone?

The ten top earners list has only two representatives from industries other than tech: The founder of the LVMH luxury brand, Bernard Arnault, and Berkshire Hathaway investment guru Warren Buffett, according to the report by RT.