TikTok founder Zhang Yiming overtakes Gautam Adani as Asia’s richest

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has overtaken Indian billionaire Gautam Adani to become Asia’s richest person, with his fortune rising above $105 billion as the artificial intelligence boom drives a new wave of wealth creation, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Zhang, 43, has seen his wealth rise more than eightfold from the $13 billion Bloomberg recorded in March 2019. His fortune jumped by more than $12 billion this month after the news agency analysed updated valuations reported by investment firms including BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.

Also Read: TikTok billionaire overtakes Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s second-richest person


The latest ranking puts Zhang ahead of Adani on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Adani’s wealth had climbed as high as $120 billion in June but has declined in recent months amid a rebalancing of stocks within the MSCI index and a broader selloff linked to higher oil prices and bond yields, Bloomberg reported.

How Zhang’s wealth surged

Zhang built his fortune through ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, which has grown into one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. The company has also expanded aggressively into artificial intelligence, with products including the Doubao chatbot and Seedance video-generation tool.

Bloomberg said Zhang’s rise highlights how the AI boom is creating fortunes that are beginning to overtake those built around more traditional industries, including Adani’s energy-to-retail empire and Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate.

“He plays his cards right,” Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at research firm Omdia, said in the report, adding that Zhang stayed focused on the company’s AI investments.

Zhang continued investing in AI even as TikTok faced intense scrutiny in the US. Su said ByteDance could also potentially use its large volume of social-media data in developing AI models.

AI-related products and services now represent ByteDance’s biggest opportunity beyond its video platform, although competition in China's AI market remains a major risk, Su said.

From TikTok to AI

Zhang’s rise in wealth comes after years of regulatory and geopolitical uncertainty surrounding TikTok, particularly in the US.

ByteDance transferred parts of TikTok’s US operations to American investors earlier this year, helping the company move beyond a period of uncertainty over the app’s future in the country, the report showed.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index applies a 10% risk discount to ByteDance because the company is privately held.

Zhang was already China's richest person, driven by TikTok’s global reach and ByteDance’s growing AI business. His latest ascent reflects the broader shift in Asia’s billionaire rankings as AI-related businesses generate new wealth.

China has also continued to push investment in artificial intelligence as it competes with the US for influence in advanced technology.