(Bloomberg) — Zhang Yiming surpassed and became the second richest person in Asia, following the rise in value of ByteDance Ltd. and new advances in the Chinese company’s AI ambitions.
Zhang’s fortune rose to $92.8 billion, cementing his position as China’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The ByteDance co-founder’s wealth has grown more than sevenfold since Bloomberg began tracking his wealth in March 2019, when he was worth $13 billion.
The surge comes amid the success of the video app TikTok, from ByteDance, and also the AI chatbot Doubao, which already has more than 300 million monthly users and has become the most popular in China. Earlier this year, ByteDance also transferred parts of its US operation to American investors.
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“The jump in valuation reflects the company’s strong fundamentals and the success of apps like Doubao in China,” said Amy Lin, an analyst at Shanghai-based Capital Securities. “Developments in the US are unlikely to have a material negative impact.”
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Zhang became China’s richest person for the first time in 2025. He was later surpassed and regained the position at the beginning of this year.
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The Bloomberg Billionaires Index applied a 25% risk discount to ByteDance’s valuation after the US House of Representatives in March 2024 passed a bill to ban TikTok from operating in the country unless its Chinese owner sold the app. This discount was reduced to 10% on June 2 to reflect the completion of the sale of the US operation, as well as the first post-spin-off valuations provided by institutional investors in regulatory documents published in late May.
Zhang’s wealth jumped more than $24 billion after Bloomberg analyzed valuations from investors including BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price Group Inc., as well as estimates from HSG and General Atlantic last month.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Ambani fell to third place among the richest in Asia, according to the Bloomberg index, with a net worth of US$86.9 billion. Gautam Adani maintained the top ranking in the region, with US$ 117.4 billion.
ByteDance is China’s highest-profile private company. Its success with Doubao led the company to prepare to charge subscriptions — something rare in a country where users have historically been reluctant to pay for online services. The company has long been seen as a strong candidate for a future initial public offering (IPO).
The company’s relevance remained intact even after TikTok’s US operations were transferred to a consortium led by Oracle Corp., Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment manager MGX. This transaction ended years of political and regulatory uncertainty surrounding what critics pointed to as potential risks to national security.
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Now the Beijing-based social media giant is betting big on artificial intelligence. The company is discussing spending of up to $70 billion this year in a bid to lead the Chinese AI market and challenge major U.S. players abroad, Bloomberg News reported last month. A large part of this investment must be financed by the approximately US$50 billion in profits obtained in 2025.
“Removing the risk linked to the US unlocked the repricing of ByteDance that remained after the sale,” said Ke Yan, a Singapore-based technology analyst at DZT Research. “Even with this repricing, the valuation still looks cheap when we look at the fundamentals.”
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