Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance — the parent company of TikTok — who became Asia's wealthiest person as of last month. [Reuters]
Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance — the parent company of TikTok — who became Asia's wealthiest person as of last month. [Reuters]

Zhang Yiming, the 43-year-old founder of TikTok parent ByteDance, has claimed the title of China's richest person, as big-tech fortunes surged and real estate tycoons who once dominated the rankings fell behind.

According to the 2026 China Rich List released Tuesday (local time) by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhang's net worth reached 670 billion yuan ($101 billion), up 200 billion yuan from last year.

It is the second time Zhang has topped China's rich list. Notably, it marks the first time the country's wealthiest individual has surpassed 600 billion yuan — a new all-time record.

Hurun valued ByteDance at 3.3 trillion yuan. Zhang holds more than 20 percent of the company's shares, and the bulk of the fortune is derived from that stake.

The expansion of ByteDance's AI business is seen as the key driver behind the sharp rise in Zhang's wealth. The company has been broadening its reach beyond Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — and the global video platform TikTok, pushing into AI with its chatbot Doubao.

Doubao has grown into China's most widely used AI service, prompting a revaluation of ByteDance's overall worth.

Another standout in this year's rankings was Liang Wenfeng, founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. At 41, Liang debuted on the list with a fortune of 280 billion yuan, landing straight at No. 7.

Last year, Hurun left Liang off the list partly because DeepSeek had indicated it would not pursue commercialization. This year, however, DeepSeek's valuation surpassed $50 billion, propelling Liang into China's top 10 wealthiest.

Hurun said the AI industry has emerged as the primary engine of new wealth creation in China. More than 160 of this year's ranked billionaires built their fortunes in AI-related sectors.

The overall number of wealthy Chinese also grew. According to Hurun, which has published its China rich list annually since 1999, the number of individuals with a net worth exceeding 5 billion yuan reached 1,529 this year — up 6.6 percent from last year and the highest on record.

China's billionaire count rose to 1,176, an increase of 155 from last year and 176 more than the United States, though still short of the record 1,185 set in 2021. At the same time, more than 900 entrepreneurs saw their wealth decline compared with last year.

The divergence between industries is widening: while a new generation of wealthy individuals has emerged from AI and semiconductors, real estate and traditional manufacturing have continued to struggle. For the first time this year, not a single mainland Chinese real estate developer made the top 100 on the list.


123@heraldcorp.com