The numbers are staggering America’s 10 richest billionaires saw their net worth swell by $698 billion in 2023, in a surge driven largely by tech and AI profits. According to Oxfam, each gained an average of $69.8 billion-833,631 times what the typical US household earned last year. This windfall comes at a time when more than 40% of Americans, including nearly half of all children, are classified as poor or low-income, underscoring a widening wealth gap that is poised to grow even larger under new federal tax policies.
1. Tech Titans and the AI Gold Rush
This group of the ultra-rich is dominated by technology tycoons Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Steve Ballmer, and Michael Dell. Their fortunes have ballooned thanks to the explosive growth of AI and cloud computing-a mirror in some ways to the industrial boom in the Gilded Age, where railroads and electricity changed the outlines of the economy. Historian Edward O’Donnell says both eras share “unprecedented wealth” alongside “feelings of uncertainty driven by the working class.”
2. Impact of The One Big Beautiful Bill
President Trump’s OBBBA, signed into law in July 2025, gives huge tax cuts to the top 0.1%, while raising taxes on the poorest Americans. By 2027, the richest will save an average of $311,000 in taxes, while those making less than $15,000 annually will be paying more. But in the more detailed analysis, the bottom 20% will lose a net $1,650 from the combined impact of the changes in taxes and tariffs, while the middle 20% will lose $1,300. In fact, the only ones gaining on average will be the top 1%, with a gain of about $5,000, after accounting for tariffs.
3. Racial and Gender Wealth Gaps
The racial wealth divide is stark white households hold 80% of US wealth, but comprise 65.3% of households. Black households, 13.6% of the total, hold just 4.7% of wealth-with median wealth at $24,520-one-tenth that of white households. Hispanic households fare little better, with median wealth of $48,700. Male-headed households gained four times more wealth than female-headed ones in recent decades, and white households saw gains 7.2 times greater than Black households.
4. Historical Parallels to the Gilded Age
The top 0.0001 percent currently hold a larger proportion of wealth than they did during the Gilded Age. In both cases, policy changes favored the elite, markets were deregulated, and labor protections were weakened. “This level of inequality is unsustainable,” says Janelle Jones, vice president at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, pointing to how, in the past, strong unions reduced disparities across race and gender.
5. The Mechanics of Upward Wealth Transfer
According to Oxfam, 60% of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony connections not earned income. Every billionaire under age 30 has inherited their fortune, signaling the beginning of a “great wealth transfer” worth $5.2 trillion over the next three decades. Exemptions to the estate tax now shield up to $30 million for joint filers, with disproportionate benefits accruing to white families, who are three times more likely than Black families to receive inheritances and receive 25% more in value.
6. Effects of Policies on Ordinary Americans
The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will directly reduce access to health and food assistance. Expanded work requirements could push tens of thousands off benefits freezing SNAP’s “thrifty food plan” will erode purchasing power over time. Meanwhile, middle-class households will face increased costs as ACA subsidies expire, and rural hospitals lose billions in Medicaid revenue.
7. Economic Resilience Amid Inequality
These measures of resilience for poor households are important in periods of recession. Experts advise diversification of income, reduction of high-interest debt, and building of emergency savings, even in small increments, as a buffer to shocks. Community-based financial cooperatives and local credit unions can offer more favorable conditions of lending compared to banks across the country, keeping households from predatory loans.
8. Global Context and Wealth Extraction
The richest 1% in the Global North extracted $30 million an hour from the Global South in 2023, which is modern-day colonialism. Global North countries control 69% of global wealth, comprising only 21% of the world’s population. This mirrors domestic inequities where concentration of wealth reduces economic mobility for the communities further down the economic ladder.
At this rate, in a decade or so, there will be several trillionaires, with millions experiencing flat wages and further increases in the cost of living. “The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few,” warns Amitabh Behar of Oxfam.
