Forty-three billionaires now call Dubai home, a figure that placed the emirate in a tie with Shenzhen for eighth position among cities worldwide ranked by billionaire residents, according to Altrata’s Billionaire Census 2026. That count rose by two over the prior year, though it left Dubai trailing New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, London, Singapore, Los Angeles and Beijing.
Altrata attributed the way billionaires cluster across cities to businesses and technology going global, along with capital moving more freely across borders. Leading urban centers keep drawing affluent residents thanks to entrepreneurial connections, financial infrastructure and premium lifestyle amenities, the report noted. It singled out Dubai and Istanbul as significant billionaire hubs, tied to the rising standing of large Asian and emerging wealth centers in worldwide rankings.
At the national level, the UAE counted 52 billionaires holding $201 billion in combined assets during 2025, earning it 15th place globally and a spot inside the world’s 15 largest billionaire markets. The country’s billionaire ranks thinned by 1.9 percent compared with the year before. That tally represented close to 1.4 percent of the 3,795 billionaires worldwide, with their wealth making up roughly 1.3 percent of the $15.1 trillion held by billionaires globally. Saudi Arabia sat one rung above the UAE with 59 billionaires, whose fortunes reached $175 billion.
Wealth generation across the broader Middle East gained ground, with the region adding to its billionaire ranks. Altrata credited economic diversification away from oil and sizable sovereign infrastructure spending as forces pulling in capital and minting new fortunes, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The region’s billionaire count climbed 5 percent to 254 people. Even so, aggregate billionaire wealth across the Middle East slid 4 percent to $700 billion, weighed down by softer energy prices and lagging regional stock markets. Oil closed 2025 down almost 20 percent, its steepest yearly drop since 2020.
Worldwide, billionaire numbers expanded 8.2 percent in 2025 to an all-time high of 3,795, the fastest yearly pace in half a decade, while their collective wealth surged 12.8 percent to $15.1 trillion. The United States held its lead as the biggest billionaire market at 1,265, ahead of China’s 363 and Germany’s 221, and the 15 top countries together commanded 83 percent of all billionaire wealth.
Artificial intelligence emerged as a major engine behind these gains. Across 150 publicly traded firms that drive the bulk of billionaire wealth, those pouring meaningful sums into AI saw market capitalization climb 23 percent faster over 2024 and 2025 than peers that stayed on the sidelines. Wealth also grew more lopsided at the summit: the 29 billionaires worth more than $50 billion each controlled $4.1 trillion in 2025, or 27 percent of the entire billionaire fortune, a sharp jump from 7.2 percent back in 2017.
Because billionaire fortunes usually sit in company ownership rather than cash, Altrata observed, shifts in equity markets and business valuations can move their net worth substantially. Company stakes, whether in listed or private firms, make up around 73 percent of the typical billionaire portfolio, with liquid holdings covering about a quarter. The census also determined that one in five billionaires worldwide lives in a different country from the one where they were born and where their main business operates.
