LONGYAN, FUJIAN: Ten years back, the net worth of Zhang Yiming stood at around $13 billion. In contrast, today the Bloomberg Billionaire Index estimates that his wealth is close to $92.8 billion, which makes him the wealthiest individual not just in China, but in all of Asia, as he has overtaken the Indian industrial mogul Mukesh Ambani. The increase in the net worth of Zhang Yiming, to the tune of around $80 billion in just seven years, is one of the quickest rises in wealth seen anywhere recently.
What led to an increase of seven times in Zhang Yiming’s net worth over seven years?
The rise in Zhang Yiming net worth is attributed to the growth of ByteDance Company since 2012. ByteDance has become one of the leading Artificial Intelligence-based platform companies such as TikTok, which has more than a billion followers worldwide.It is through the rising AI spending by ByteDance that the current investor faith in the growth of the net worth of Zhang Yiming is generated.
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Ambani being overtaken What the rise in ranks symbolizes
The fall of Mukesh Ambani from his status as the second richest person in Asia is an indicator of a wider trend that shows that wealth creation in Asia now takes place somewhere else. While the wealth of Mukesh Ambani comes from petrochemicals, telecommunication, and retail, that of Zhang Yiming is based on digital technologies and AI infrastructures.
Wealth of AI and the new billionaire map
The analysts attribute the growth in Zhang Yiming’s wealth to consistent trust on the business success of ByteDance and AI revenue generating abilities. It is important to note that ByteDance is yet to make an IPO; hence its value is pegged on the private market deals which are influenced by institutional investors.
