The Indian Express ·
Economy, business and finance
TikTok founder Zhang Yiming becomes Asia’s richest person, overtakes Adani: Top 20
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has become Asia’s richest person for the first time, overtaking Indian billionaire Gautam Adani as his fortune crossed $105 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His fortune has increased more than eightfold from $13 billion in March 2019, when Bloomberg began tracking his wealth, boosted by the higher valuation of ByteDance and growing investor interest in its AI products, including Doubao and Seedance.
The latest rankings have placed Zhang ahead of Adani on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, highlighting the growing influence of AI and consumer platforms on Asian billionaire fortunes and wealth rankings.
Zhang’s wealth is closely tied to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which over time has emerged as one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.
The organisation has also expanded its presence rapidly in the field of artificial intelligence, with products like the Doubao chatbot and the Seedance video-generation tool.
Zhang continued with his investments in AI even as TikTok faced intense scrutiny in the United States.
Earlier this year, ByteDance transferred parts of TikTok’s US operations to American investors, easing uncertainty over the app’s future in the country.
Before taking over Asia’s top spot, Zhang was already China’s richest, with his wealth driven by TikTok’s global reach and ByteDance’s expanding AI business.
(AI-generated image)
One man is worth more than the next three combined. At the other end of the table, Asia’s richest changed hands this morning.
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has passed Gautam Adani to become Asia’s richest person for the first time. Both sit on about $105 billion, but Zhang is now ahead — an eightfold rise from the $13 billion Bloomberg first recorded for him in March 2019.
Figures as of the latest available index reading, compiled September 16, 2026. The index revalues after every New York close, so these numbers move daily.
Who is Zhang Yiming?
Five things about the man who displaced Gautam Adani.
He built TikTok’s parent, then stopped running it
He founded ByteDance in Beijing in 2012 and stepped down as chief executive in November 2021, completing a handover announced that May. He has stayed out of the operational seat since.
Almost everyone else in the global top 20 is in their fifties, sixties or seventies. Warren Buffett, at tenth, is 96.
His fortune has risen eightfold in seven years
Bloomberg first tracked him at $13 billion in March 2019. He passed Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s second-richest in June, and Adani today.
It is the AI business moving the number, not TikTok
ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot has passed 300 million monthly users and is the most popular in China. Bloomberg’s revaluation drew on marks from BlackRock, Fidelity and T Rowe Price.
The TikTok standoff with Washington was settled in January 2026, when ByteDance agreed a US joint venture with Oracle and Silver Lake, removing the threat of a forced shutdown.
How firm is $105 billion?
Less firm than the figures above him. ByteDance is private, so this is not marked to market the way Musk’s Tesla stake is — Bloomberg is valuing an unlisted company from investor marks. That is precisely where Bloomberg and Forbes have historically diverged by tens of billions on the same person.
Gautam Adani is the only Indian in the top 20, and he enters it at the bottom having just lost the Asia crown. Mukesh Ambani sits outside this table in 23rd place, on about $81 billion.
Sources: Bloomberg Billionaires Index; Bloomberg News.