The year the tech billionaires won (again)

eter Thiel, a New Zealand citizen, saw the share price of the data and AI company he founded, Palantir, rise 141% this year. (Image: Getty)

Peter Griffin

Wed, 10 Dec 2025

What a year it’s been for the world’s tech billionaires. While the rest of the global economy spluttered along – tight credit here, anaemic growth there – the men (and yes, still overwhelmingly men) of Silicon Valley quietly turned 2025 into a personal bull market. Share prices soared, political connections deepened, and regulators lost their nerve when it came to efforts underway to crimp their power. Somewhere between the AI gold rush and Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the tech elite man...

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