Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, March 11th.

Today on Forbes, World's Billionaires List, Facts and Figures.

Never before have billionaires so thoroughly dominated the world,

driving politics, policies, equity markets, and AI hysteria, which has, in turn, propelled the

planet's richest people to heights hard to imagine even just a few years ago. A record 3,428

entrepreneurs, investors, and heirs make this year's world's billionaires list, which was released Tuesday.

That's 400 more billionaires this year than in 2025.

Put another way, the planet added more than one new billionaire every day over the past 12

months.

Even more astonishing is the money.

As a group, the billionaire class is $4 trillion richer than last year.

That bears repeating.

The world's billionaires are collectively $4 trillion richer than last year.

Their combined wealth now stands at a record $20.1 trillion.

The average billionaire's fortune is now $5.8 billion, up from $5.3 billion in 2025.

Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 1, 2026 for this year's list.

Nowhere is that dominance stronger than in the U.S., where the country is governed by a president

who is a billionaire, and where 15 of the 20 richest people on Earth reside.

That includes the wealthiest of all, Elon Musk, whose grip on the top spot is as strong as it's ever been.

Over the past year, Musk has raced through a series of milestones as Tesla stock has climbed

and he's maneuvered SpaceX through a series of deals at increasingly lofty valuations.

Musk became the first person to hit $500 billion in wealth in October,

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