ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, whose company owns TikTok, has for the first time become the richest person in Asia. According to estimates by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his wealth has exceeded $105 billion. He overtook Indian businessman Gautam Adani. The significant growth in Zhang's wealth is linked to the development of artificial intelligence at ByteDance.
43-year-old Zhang Yiming increased his wealth by more than $12 billion in September alone. This occurred after the latest valuations of ByteDance, published by investment firms BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and T. Rowe Price, were analyzed.
Since March 2019, when Bloomberg began tracking Zhang's wealth, it has grown approximately eightfold – from $13 billion to over $105 billion.
The main factor in ByteDance's growth is no longer just TikTok, but also the development of artificial intelligence-based products. Among them are the Doubao chatbot and the Seedance video generator.
Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at research firm Omdia, noted that Zhang Yiming has consistently followed his chosen course and continued to increase investments in artificial intelligence. According to him, ByteDance can use a large volume of data from its social platforms to train AI models. However, one of the main risks for the company remains high competition in the Chinese market.
Previous record holder Gautam Adani took the top spot on the list of Asia's richest people in June, when his wealth reached $120 billion. However, in recent months, his wealth has decreased following a drop in shares of his conglomerate's companies. Their valuations were affected by the rebalancing of the MSCI index and a broader market sell-off amid rising oil prices and bond yields.
When assessing Zhang's fortune, Bloomberg applies a 10% discount to the valuation of privately held ByteDance. This is due to the risks created by the company's closed ownership structure.
The growth in Zhang's wealth comes amidst a significant redistribution of capital in China's technology sector. The artificial intelligence boom is contributing to the emergence of new billionaires, including among owners of companies that are not yet profitable.
In recent years, ByteDance has transformed from a company whose main global product was TikTok into one of the largest players in China's artificial intelligence market. At the same time, the company has long faced problems regarding TikTok's operations in the US. In early 2026, the standoff concluded with the transfer of some US operations to American investors.
Chinese authorities are actively supporting the development of artificial intelligence as part of technological competition with the United States. Beijing has rejected calls from American tech executives to slow down AI development and increase restrictions for Chinese developers of corresponding models.
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