The world’s billionaires are worried; see what your biggest anguish is

Money can’t buy love, but surely billions of dollars should be enough to shield someone from global uncertainty and provide some peace of mind, right? Maybe not.

According to the most recent UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report, which surveyed super-rich clients around the world, just 1% said: “I am not concerned about any economic, market or policy factors that could negatively impact the market environment over the next 12 months.”

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Meanwhile, billionaires’ most cited concern was Trump’s tariffs, with 66% saying they are likely to harm market conditions over the next year. Close behind came “major geopolitical conflict”, with 63%, and uncertainty with public policies, with 59%.

Although Wall Street is worried about soaring debt in the US, other countries and giant AI companies issuing more bonds, only 34% of billionaires named a debt crisis as the main factor keeping them up at night.

Other risks that appear in the foreground elsewhere, but were lower on the billionaires’ list, were global recession (27%), crisis in financial markets (16%) and climate change (14%).

Of course, UBS highlighted that there are regional differences in billionaires’ concerns. For example, 75% of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region cited tariffs, while 70% in the Americas cited higher inflation or major geopolitical conflict.

That’s because President Donald Trump’s trade war has hit China and Southeast Asia with high tariffs, while Japan and South Korea face lower but still historically high tariffs.

At the other end of the trade war, importers in the US are passing on some of the tariff costs to American consumers, who are increasingly anxious about high prices and lost purchasing power.

In fact, Trump’s tariffs could even cool inflation in the rest of the global economy while maintaining pressure on prices at home.

The president and the White House insist that costs are lower, but the consumer price index has been accelerating its annual rate steadily since “Liberation Day,” Trump’s surprise announcement in April.

Of course, billionaires are not as limited by international borders as most people, which makes any regional differences between them more fluid.

The UBS report found that 36% have moved countries at least once, and another 9% say they are considering doing so. The main reasons mentioned were seeking a better quality of life (36%), geopolitical concerns (36%) and the possibility of organizing fiscal matters more efficiently (35%).