Zhang Yiming has overtaken Mukesh Ambani to become Asia's second-richest person. Yiming rose to the position after an increase in ByteDance Ltd.'s market valuation and the Chinese company's accelerating advancements in artificial intelligence.
Zhang Yiming's net worth
Zhang's net worth surged to $92.8 billion, boosting his position as China's richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhang's total net worth swelled to $92.8 billion, firmly establishing him as the richest person in China. The ByteDance co-founder's wealth has multiplied over seven times since Bloomberg initially began tracking his assets in March 2019, when his fortune stood at $13 billion.
The growth is driven by success of ByteDance's video-sharing platform TikTok, alongside its AI chatbot Doubao, which has grown to become China's most dominant AI app with over 300 million monthly active users. Additionally, ByteDance successfully shifted components of its United States operations to American investors earlier this year.
"The jump in valuation reflects the company's strong fundamentals and the success of its apps such as Doubao in China," said Amy Lin, Shanghai-based analyst at Capital Securities, as quoted by Bloomberg News. "The developments in the US are unlikely to have a major negative impact," Lin added.
Zhang first became China's richest person in 2025. Though he temporarily lost the top spot, he successfully reclaimed the ranking earlier this year. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index applied a 25 per cent risk discount to ByteDance's valuation after the US House of Representatives passed a bill in March 2024 to ban TikTok's operation in the country unless its Chinese owner sells the app. That discount was lowered to 10% on June 2 to reflect the completion of the US sale as well as the first post-spinoff valuations given by institutional investors in regulatory filings published in late May.
Zhang's wealth jumped by more than $24 billion after Bloomberg analyzed valuations from investors BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and those given by HSG and General Atlantic last month.
As per Bloomber News report, ByteDance didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meantime, Ambani dropped to the third-richest in Asia, the Bloomberg index showed, with a net worth of $86.9 billion. Gautam Adani retained the region's top spot at $117.4 billion.
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