At least five Chinese company founders among the top 10 mainland billionaires – named on a list compiled by a magazine backed by the state-owned Securities Times – can attribute their ascent to the rise of artificial intelligence, with ByteDance's Zhang Yiming ranking on top for the first time.
Zhang, founder of TikTok parent ByteDance, topped the list with shareholdings valued at 481.6 billion yuan (HK$526.6 billion). He first appeared on the list in 2018 with a net worth of just 12 billion yuan. The surge in his wealth has been driven by the massive traction of ByteDance’s content platforms and its early bet on AI technologies, Securities Times said.
The top 500 mainland wealthiest individuals saw their wealth grow 11 percent year-on-year to 13.7 trillion yuan. Average shareholding per person stood at about 27.4 billion yuan, with 341 people owning stakes worth over 10 billion yuan. The minimum threshold to make the list climbed to 6.62 billion yuan.
A notable newcomer was 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng, founder of AI startup DeepSeek, who made his debut on the list at No 10 with 184.6 billion yuan. He is the youngest individual in the top 10.
The surge in AI has driven a revaluation of companies such as Tencent (0700), Xiaomi (1810), and Alibaba (9988), propelling leaders Pony Ma Huateng, Lei Jun, and Jack Ma Yun into the list’s top 10. They ranked third, sixth, and seventh respectively, with shareholding values of 306.7 billion yuan, 201 billion yuan, and 199.99 billion yuan.
However, Bloomberg reported that mainland investors have been cutting their holdings in Tencent over the past two months.
The report cited data from Kaiyuan Securities, which showed that the proportion of Tencent shares held by mainland investors dropped from around 12 percent in late April to 10.95 percent on Monday – the lowest level since January – with net selling recorded almost daily via the Stock Connect scheme.
Bloomberg attributed the decline to shifting capital flows, as investor enthusiasm for AI has been partly redirected toward new consumption-related sectors.
Nongfu Spring (9633) founder Zhong Shanshan ranked second with 362.4 billion yuan, losing nearly 100 billion yuan and the top spot he held for four consecutive years, partly due to having few stakes in the AI boom.
The three leading wealth-creating sectors on the list are technology, media and telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and daily consumer goods, contributing 110, 54, and 53 billionaires respectively.
STAFF REPORTER
