ByteDance founder Truong Nhat Minh leads the ranking of China's richest people in 2026, according to Chinese wealth research firm Hurun.
Over the past 27 years, 17 billionaires from diverse business sectors have held this title. These include Nongfu Spring mineral water company founder Chung Thiem Thiem and Country Garden real estate company chair Duong Hue Nghien, according to Hurun's ranking of Chinese billionaires from 1999 to 2026.
In 2001, Luu Vinh Hao and his brother Luu Vinh Hanh topped the list of the 100 wealthiest individuals that year as owners of New Hope Group, one of China's leading animal feed producers, with an estimated fortune of 8,3 billion yuan (1,2 billion USD).
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ByteDance founder Truong Nhat Minh in 2021. Photo: China Daily |
In the US, four billionaires have dominated the top spot for nearly three decades. Bill Gates, founder of global software corporation Microsoft, led the country's richest list about 17 times from 1999 to 2017, according to data from Forbes and Hurun. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has headed the ranking since 2022.
Jeff Bezos, founder of e-commerce and cloud computing corporation Amazon, and Warren Buffett, former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, shared the leading position in the years between those periods.
"From the diverse backgrounds of China's wealthiest individuals, we can observe the dynamism within the market of the world's second-largest economy", said Hurun executive director and co-founder Sinclair Lyu.
He added, "China is currently the most diverse and dynamic market in the world".
According to Lyu, wealth creation in China is closely linked to the nation's industrial development phases and macroeconomic policies.
From 1999 to 2025, real estate tycoons like Ly Gia Thanh and owners of internet giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, and NetEase, capitalized on waves of globalization and technology to rise to the top of Hurun's list of Chinese billionaires.
During the same period, China's gross domestic product (GDP) surged over 16 times, from 1,1 trillion USD to 19,5 trillion USD, maintaining its position as the world's second-largest economy since 2010, according to World Bank data.
This pace was much faster than the US economy's three-fold growth, although with a size of 30,77 trillion USD last year, the US remains the world's largest economy.
The wealth of entrepreneurs ranked annually in China also increased rapidly during that time, from the 1 billion yuan of the Vinh Dich Nhan family of Citic Group financial and investment corporation in 1999 to 550 billion yuan (81 billion USD) for Truong Nhat Minh this year.
Despite embracing the AI wave, the wealthy in China still lag far behind US billionaires. Elon Musk's fortune reached 792 billion USD in mid-January 2026, continuing to lead Hurun's global billionaire list.
However, Lyu believes Chinese AI startups can extend the wealth-generating wave from the technology boom by leveraging domestic production capabilities and the potential of tech-savvy young consumers.
He stated, "The new AI-centric economy has just begun. The Chinese market continues to offer many exceptional talents completely new development opportunities".
Hong Hanh (According to SCMP, Hurun)
