Here’s a focused “Quick Scoop” style explainer built around the idea of who made money lately, using public business, investing, and forum-style trends.

Who made money? The big picture

In the last year or two, people who made real money tended to fall into a few buckets: those who built or owned businesses in hot sectors (AI, green energy, digital services), those who ran lean online businesses with recurring revenue, and those who offered clear ROI to other businesses (B2B services, automation, marketing). A smaller but louder group are traders and speculators who scored big in short bursts on options or risky moves, often discussed on forums.

1. Business owners in “2026” hot sectors

People owning or starting companies in certain sectors have been strong candidates for “who made money” in 2025–2026.

Key sectors:

  • AI-powered tools and automation (chatbots, analytics, SaaS). Companies here profit because businesses pay for productivity gains and recurring subscriptions.
  • Sustainable and green energy (solar, EV charging, eco-products). Government incentives plus consumer demand make this a high-growth area.
  • Cybersecurity services (penetration testing, cloud security, managed security). As breaches get expensive, firms pay serious money to prevent them.
  • HealthTech and telemedicine, wellness and fitness apps, and personalized health services, which ride the long-term trend of preventive health and remote care.
  • FoodTech and alternative proteins (plant-based, lab-grown, healthy subscriptions), which benefit from demand for sustainable and health-focused food.

Why they made money:
These people didn’t just “find a hack”; they built or bought into businesses with high margins, recurring revenue, and clear demand.

2. Digital businesses with low overhead

Another big group who “made money” are those running lean digital businesses from laptops.

What’s been working:

  • Subscription-based services (software, communities, memberships, newsletters with paywalls).
  • Niche content platforms and online education that solve specific problems for specific audiences.
  • Community-driven brands where people pay for access, support, or a specialized network.

A common pattern: these operators focus less on viral spikes and more on delivering consistent value, building trust, and stacking small, predictable revenue streams.

3. “Unglamorous” local entrepreneurs

Outside the flashy online world, many people who “quietly” made good money did it through ordinary local services.

Examples:

  • Cleaning services, trades (plumbing, electrical, HVAC), and removals.
  • Clinics and pet-care businesses.
  • Local businesses that modernized marketing and operations (online booking, better websites, automation) and outperformed old-school competitors.

Here, the winners were not necessarily inventors; they were operators who ran boring businesses better: better service, better systems, clearer value.

4. B2B problem-solvers and “ROI sellers”

A lot of money has flowed to people and companies selling outcomes to other businesses, not just “content.”

They made money by:

  • Lead generation for small and medium businesses, usually tied to measurable results.
  • Automation and AI “agents” that save hours of work or reduce cost.
  • Operational improvements, compliance, and streamlined systems that directly affect a client’s bottom line.
  • Highly specialized info products that target a narrow professional problem with a clear payoff (e.g., more leads, fewer errors, faster processes).

These earners didn’t need millions of followers; they needed a small number of businesses willing to pay well for real financial results.

5. Creators who turned skills into products

Some individuals made substantial income by turning creative work into scalable products, often highlighted in money-focused publications.

Illustrative examples:

  • A fantasy author earning about 130,000 USD per year from books and related products, proving that niche fiction can be lucrative with the right audience and marketing.
  • A visual artist making around 13,000 USD per month by turning oil painting into a structured business (content, products, and likely education or community).
  • A coloring-book creator building a brand that reportedly generates around 2.6 million USD per year, showing how a single creative concept can become a product ecosystem.

The pattern: creators who treat their craft like a business—owning distribution, building an audience, and packaging their skills as products or premium experiences—are among those who “made money.”

6. Traders and speculators (the noisy winners)

On forums like WallStreetBets, you see posts about people who “just made a lot of money” on aggressive trades, especially short-dated options.

Typical stories:

  • Users reporting 1,000% returns in minutes on 0DTE (same-day expiration) call options when a trade goes perfectly.
  • Others boasting about turning weekend-held options into a 2.5× profit at market open.

But these threads also show the flip side: margin calls, lost gains, and trades that “and… it’s gone” as quickly as they appeared. So while these people briefly “made money,” the volatility and frequent losses mean it’s not the stable kind of wealth many business owners build.

7. Franchise and niche business buyers

Another pocket of earners: people buying franchises or existing businesses in proven models that can generate seven-figure revenues.

Trends:

  • Content about “4 businesses that will make a lot of money in 2026” focuses on real franchises whose owners are already making millions in revenue, backed by formal disclosure documents.
  • Lists of “high-performing franchises” and “low-cost businesses that make 1M+” suggest that some investors buy into existing systems instead of starting from scratch.

These people made money by purchasing into a tested playbook—trading higher upfront cost for increased predictability and data on performance.

Mini HTML table: Where people made money

Below is an HTML table (not an image) summarizing the main groups that “made money” recently:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Group</th>
      <th>How They Made Money</th>
      <th>Key Idea</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Hot-sector founders</td>
      <td>AI tools, green energy, cybersecurity, HealthTech, FoodTech businesses with strong demand and recurring revenue. [web:1]</td>
      <td>Build in high-growth markets with clear customer need.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Digital business owners</td>
      <td>Subscriptions, niche platforms, online education, communities with low overhead and steady cash flow. [web:3][web:9]</td>
      <td>Small, reliable payments beat unpredictable virality.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Local service entrepreneurs</td>
      <td>Cleaning, trades, removals, clinics, pet care, modernized with better marketing and systems. [web:7]</td>
      <td>“Boring” businesses run well can be very profitable.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>B2B ROI specialists</td>
      <td>Lead gen, automation, compliance, and specialized info that save time or money for companies. [web:9]</td>
      <td>Sell measurable results to businesses, not just content.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Creators with products</td>
      <td>Authors, artists, and other creators turning skills into books, products, and premium offers. [web:8]</td>
      <td>Treat creativity like a business with scalable products.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Speculative traders</td>
      <td>Short-dated options and risky trades with occasional huge wins and frequent sharp losses. [web:4]</td>
      <td>High risk, high noise, often not sustainable wealth.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Franchise buyers</td>
      <td>Buying into proven franchises or businesses with known revenue patterns and support systems. [web:5]</td>
      <td>Pay to join a system that already works.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

If you’re asking: “So how do I become one of them?”

Different paths fit different personalities:

  1. If you like tech and systems
    • Look at AI tools, automation services, or B2B systems that save businesses time or money.
  1. If you prefer “real world” work
    • Consider local service businesses that you can modernize with better marketing and operations.
  1. If you’re creative
    • Treat your art/writing as a business: build an audience, create products, and think in terms of offers, not just posts.
  1. If you’re tempted by trading
    • Be aware that the spectacular wins you read about are usually surrounded by quiet, painful losses.

TL;DR: People who truly “made money” in the current landscape did it by owning valuable systems—businesses, franchises, and digital products that solve real problems—more than by chasing one-off windfalls.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.