Billionaire Zhang Yiming is China’s richest at $99.7 billion

Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., is once again the richest person in China after his fortune rose 43% to $99.7 billion in a year, driven by the company’s push into artificial intelligence.

Zhang’s net worth climbed by $33.8 billion, the biggest gain of anyone in the country, according to the 2026 Hurun China Rich List published on Tuesday. That put him well ahead of Zhong Shanshan, the bottled-water tycoon who topped last year’s ranking, whose fortune fell 23% to $61 billion.

“Almost all of it on the back of AI,” Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, said of Zhang’s gain.

ByteDance’s profit rose on advertising and AI revenue from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, from TikTok itself and from Doubao, its chatbot. Hoogewerf said Doubao is the most widely used AI assistant in China. Hurun describes ByteDance as China’s most valuable privately held startup.

Zhang, 43, set up ByteDance in Beijing in 2012 and stepped down as chief executive in 2021. He also topped the Hurun list in 2024. He is the 18th different person to rank first in the list’s 28 years.

China’s billionaire count climbs

The number of dollar billionaires in China rose by 155 to 1,176, according to Hurun. That is 176 more than in the U.S. and just short of the record of 1,185 set in 2021.

The list counts 1,529 people worth at least 5 billion yuan, about $740 million, a record and 95 more than last year. Their combined wealth rose 7% to $4.8 trillion. Hurun valued fortunes as of Sept. 1, using an exchange rate of 6.72 yuan to the dollar.

The gains were concentrated at the top. Of the people on the list, 785 saw their wealth rise, while 911 saw it fall or stay flat, including 167 who dropped off the list.

“China’s richest have broken through to a new record,” Hoogewerf said. “Remarkably, the record was set in a year when the majority of the list saw their wealth go down.”

AI and chip fortunes surge

Zeng Yuqun, chairman of electric-vehicle battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., ranked third with $57.3 billion, up 17%. Tencent Holdings Ltd. founder Ma Huateng, known as Pony Ma, was fourth with $51.5 billion after a 26% drop. He Xiangjian and his family, who control appliance maker Midea Group Co., ranked fifth with $46.1 billion.

Chen Jianhua and Fan Hongwei of petrochemicals group Hengli were sixth with $44.9 billion, up 59%. Liang Wenfeng, founder of AI startup DeepSeek, entered the list for the first time in seventh place with $41.7 billion. NetEase Inc. founder Ding Lei, Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing and his son Victor Li, and Chen Tianshi of AI chipmaker Cambricon Technologies Corp. completed the top 10. Chen’s $30.5 billion was the cutoff for the top tier.

About 160 people on the list, roughly one in 10, made their money from AI, making it the single biggest source of wealth on the ranking. They include Yang Zhilin of Moonshot AI, worth $7 billion, and Yan Junjie of MiniMax, worth $3.4 billion. Wang Xingxing, founder of robot maker Unitree Robotics, debuted with $10.3 billion.

Consumer and property fortunes went the other way. Xiaomi Corp. founder Lei Jun was the year’s biggest faller, as his wealth fell 48% to $25.1 billion, placing him 17th. Colin Huang, founder of PDD Holdings Inc., the owner of Temu and Pinduoduo, dropped out of the top 10 to 11th with $30.1 billion, down 36%. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma was 13th with $27.5 billion.

Hoogewerf described the split as “a two-speed economy,” with AI, semiconductor and robotics entrepreneurs gaining while consumer, property and traditional manufacturing fortunes shrank. No mainland Chinese property developer made the top 100 for the first time.

“The era when property was China’s wealth-creation engine is definitively over,” he said.

Memory-chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies, which listed in July, has overtaken both ByteDance and Tencent as China’s most valuable company, Hurun said. Shenzhen, home to many of the country’s technology and hardware companies, overtook Shanghai and Beijing as the city with the most people on the list, with 177.