The sources of wealth in this list read like an inventory of what Chinese companies make and sell. They include short-video apps, bottled drinks, online games, home appliances, chips, batteries and medicines. The captured Forbes dataset records 516 billionaires with mainland Chinese citizenship; these are the hundred largest.
Forbes lists Hong Kong and Taiwan separately from mainland China, so billionaires recorded under those places are not included here. The amounts are shown in US dollars. A change in exchange rates can therefore move a fortune even when the underlying shares are unchanged in local currency.
Who is the richest person in mainland China?
Zhang Yiming, with an estimated net worth of US$84bn, according to Forbes’ real-time list as captured on 12 September 2026.
Where the shares trade
Chinese founders often hold stakes in companies listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong or New York. Some own shares in companies that remain private, which have no daily price at all. Each market has its own trading rules and investors. Forbes brings those holdings to a single dollar estimate, which makes the fortunes comparable while hiding some differences.
A list that can change quickly
Many of these fortunes rest largely on one company’s shares, so they move with that company’s price. Changes in regulation, competition or investor sentiment can alter the value of a stake within weeks. Chinese technology shares have seen large swings in both directions in recent years. A position in this snapshot describes 12 September 2026; it is not a forecast.
Family names and shared holdings
Some entries are labelled “& family”, where Forbes estimates a fortune held with relatives. Spouses, parents and children can share stakes in the same company, and the source decides whether to list them together or apart. We keep its choices rather than combining or splitting estimates ourselves.
What this snapshot shows
Zhang Yiming leads this captured list at approximately US$84bn. The entry at number 100, Liang Zhaoxian, is approximately US$4.49bn. The first ten account for 33.2% of the sum of the hundred reported values. That share is calculated within this list; it is not a share of all wealth in mainland China.
The first ten
Zhang Yiming
Source of wealth: TikTok ·
Zhang Yiming’s net worth is about US$84bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, building apps that used recommendation algorithms to choose what each user saw. The news app Toutiao came first, followed by the short-video service Douyin, known outside China as TikTok. Its global popularity made ByteDance one of the world’s most valuable private technology companies.
Zhang stepped down as chief executive in 2021 but, according to Reuters, retains a majority of the voting rights. As ByteDance is not publicly traded, his fortune rests on a private company’s value, not a daily share price.
Zhong Shanshan
Source of wealth: Beverages, pharmaceuticals ·
Zhong Shanshan’s net worth is about US$58.3bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Zhong Shanshan was a journalist and then a sales agent for the Wahaha beverage company. In 1996 he founded a bottled-water business in Hangzhou that became Nongfu Spring, China’s largest bottled-water producer. It later added tea, juice and other drinks.
His fortune rests mainly on his majority stake in Nongfu Spring, which listed in Hong Kong in 2020. He also controls the drugmaker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, listed the same year. Both listings sharply increased the value of his holdings.
Ma Huateng
Source of wealth: Online games ·
Ma Huateng’s net worth is about US$46.3bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Ma Huateng, known as Pony Ma, co-founded Tencent in Shenzhen in 1998 with four classmates. Its first hit was a free instant-messaging service later renamed QQ. Online games followed in the mid-2000s, becoming a main source of revenue, and WeChat launched in 2011.
Ma has remained chairman and chief executive as Tencent grew into a group spanning games, social media, entertainment and financial services. Bloomberg has attributed most of his wealth to his stake in Tencent Holdings, listed in Hong Kong since 2004.
Liang Wenfeng
Source of wealth: AI, hedge fund ·
Liang Wenfeng’s net worth is about US$39.9bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Liang Wenfeng studied engineering at Zhejiang University and began applying machine learning to financial markets. In 2016 he and two classmates co-founded High-Flyer, a quantitative hedge fund that used mathematical models and artificial intelligence to make investment decisions.
In 2023 he launched DeepSeek, an AI developer funded by High-Flyer and built on the fund’s computing power. Its R1 model drew international attention. Because High-Flyer owns DeepSeek, his wealth is tied to both businesses.
William Ding
Source of wealth: Online games ·
William Ding’s net worth is about US$39.2bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
William Ding, also known as Ding Lei, worked as an engineer before founding NetEase in 1997. The company began with email services and web portals and listed on Nasdaq in 2000. A year later it formed NetEase Games, launching the role-playing game Westward Journey.
Games became central to the business, from in-house titles to partnerships bringing Western games to Chinese players. Ding remains chief executive and was ranked mainland China’s richest person as early as 2003. His fortune is tied to his NetEase stake.
He Xiangjian & family
Source of wealth: Home appliances ·
He Xiangjian and family are worth about US$37.7bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
He Xiangjian founded the business that became Midea in 1968 in Beijiao, Guangdong, where it first made bottle lids. It moved into electric fans in 1980 and air conditioners in 1985. Refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and many other household appliances followed.
Midea Group, listed in Shenzhen, has also expanded abroad through factories, joint ventures and acquisitions. He stepped down as chairman in 2012. Forbes lists him together with his family, whose fortune is tied to their shareholding in the appliance maker.
Chen Tianshi
Source of wealth: Semiconductors ·
Chen Tianshi’s net worth is about US$27.8bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Chen Tianshi studied at the University of Science and Technology of China, then became a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2016 he and his brother Chen Yunji co-founded Cambricon, an academy spin-off, to commercialise its work on deep-learning processors.
Cambricon designs artificial-intelligence chips and listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market in 2020. Its shares rose sharply in 2024 as China pushed companies towards domestic alternatives to Nvidia. That multiplied the value of his stake, the main source of his fortune.
Colin Huang
Source of wealth: E-commerce ·
Colin Huang’s net worth is about US$27.4bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Colin Huang studied computer science in China and the United States and worked as an engineer at Google before starting his own e-commerce businesses. In 2015 he founded Pinduoduo in Shanghai, a shopping platform built around group discounts shared among friends.
Pinduoduo listed on Nasdaq in 2018, and its parent, now PDD Holdings, launched the international marketplace Temu in 2022. Huang stepped down as chief executive in 2020 and as chairman in 2021. His fortune remains tied to his stake in PDD.
Jack Ma
Source of wealth: E-commerce ·
Jack Ma’s net worth is about US$25.9bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Jack Ma was an English lecturer in Hangzhou before turning to the internet in the mid-1990s. In 1999 he co-founded Alibaba as a business-to-business marketplace. The consumer sites Taobao and Tmall, the payment service Alipay and cloud computing followed.
Ma stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman in 2019 and left its board in 2020. That year regulators halted the planned listing of Ant Group, which grew out of Alipay. His fortune is tied to his remaining stakes in Alibaba and Ant, not an executive role.
Zheng Shuliang & family
Source of wealth: Aluminum products ·
Zheng Shuliang and family are worth about US$25.4bn, according to Forbes’ estimate captured on 12 September 2026.
Zheng Shuliang’s fortune is tied to China Hongqiao Group, the aluminium producer built by her late husband, Zhang Shiping. It grew out of a Shandong textile business and began producing aluminium in 2001. It listed in Hong Kong in 2011 and is one of the world’s largest primary aluminium producers.
At its core is an integrated smelting, alumina refining and coal-fired power complex in Binzhou. After Zhang died in 2019, their son Zhang Bo took charge. Zheng was vice-chairwoman until she stepped down in May 2026. Forbes lists her with her family.
The ranking continues: 11–100
Forbes · ranking and methodology
- Estimated net worth: US$24,809,109,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$23,577,769,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$22,282,106,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$22,216,217,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$21,841,878,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$21,237,514,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$20,947,575,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$19,327,078,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$17,372,751,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$17,097,714,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$16,460,506,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$16,169,923,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$16,070,549,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$15,412,918,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$15,350,959,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$14,821,889,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$14,806,713,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$14,203,157,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$14,079,958,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$12,564,479,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$12,555,658,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$11,486,527,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$11,262,016,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$10,658,116,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$10,196,742,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$9,703,208,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$9,458,090,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$9,437,062,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$9,301,615,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,876,582,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,788,005,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,748,852,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,630,342,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,625,776,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,622,778,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,309,257,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,298,963,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,276,460,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,173,007,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,115,581,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$8,084,169,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$7,769,283,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$7,671,471,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$7,445,567,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,882,950,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,612,470,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,578,769,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,569,210,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,430,009,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,252,877,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$6,074,565,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,909,338,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,879,806,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,799,920,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,763,894,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,676,183,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,675,809,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,648,042,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,592,652,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,579,230,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,577,162,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,472,219,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,408,113,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,400,000,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,359,863,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,336,011,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,288,785,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,285,496,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,261,258,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,243,012,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,232,469,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,191,674,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,186,981,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,093,886,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,076,000,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,071,712,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,066,208,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$5,001,652,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,980,327,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,968,468,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,832,385,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,767,935,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,751,479,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,746,080,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,683,787,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,648,390,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,644,886,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,633,450,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,536,209,000.00
- Estimated net worth: US$4,492,962,000.00
There is always a story.
This list shows where very large private fortunes sit in mainland China’s economy, according to one source on one day. Read beside the sources of wealth, it says as much about the industries behind them as about the owners.