TikTok founder Zhang Yiming becomes Asia’s richest person

Zhang Yiming, the 43-year-old founder of ByteDance, has become Asia's richest person for the first time after his net worth crossed $105 billion, surpassing Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.ynetnews+1

Zhang's fortune surged by roughly $12 billion in September alone after investment firms including BlackRock ↗ 1.50%, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. ↗ 1.28% raised their valuations of ByteDance, which recent stake sales have valued at approximately $550 billion. The milestone marks an eightfold increase from the $13 billion Bloomberg recorded when it began tracking Zhang's wealth in March 2019.celebritynetworth+2

An AI Fortune, Not Just a TikTok Fortune

While TikTok remains ByteDance's most recognizable product globally, the company's aggressive push into artificial intelligence has become a central driver of its rising valuation. ByteDance's Doubao chatbot had 382 million monthly active users as of May 2026, making it China's most popular AI app by a wide margin, ahead of Alibaba's ↗ 4.33% Qwen and DeepSeek combined. Its Seedance video-generation model has also gained traction in the global market.growthdragons.substack

"He stayed on course and then continued to double down on AI investment," said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at research firm Omdia.ynetnews

ByteDance's revenue reached approximately $120 billion in the first half of 2026, rising about 30 percent year on year and slightly exceeding Meta's ↘ 2.43% revenue over the same period. However, heavy AI spending caused net profit to decline to around $20 billion, compressing margins from 26 percent in 2023 to roughly 16.7 percent. The company secured approximately $30 billion in bank loans to finance data centers, chip purchases, and AI infrastructure.growthdragons.substack

Adani's Decline and the TikTok Resolution

Zhang owns roughly 20 to 21 percent of ByteDance, which remains private. Bloomberg applies a 10 percent illiquidity discount to his stake, placing his net worth just above $105 billion. Adani's fortune, by contrast, had climbed to about $120 billion in June but fell in recent months after MSCI ↗ 0.62% index rebalancing weighed on shares across his conglomerate, compounded by broader market pressure from rising oil prices and bond yields.celebritynetworth+1

Zhang's ascent is all the more notable given that TikTok's future in the United States appeared uncertain as recently as early 2025, when the app was briefly shut down after a congressionally mandated divestiture deadline passed. In January 2026, ByteDance completed a restructuring that created a new U.S. entity in which American and international investors hold an 80.1 percent stake, with ByteDance retaining 19.9 percent.ynetnews+1

Zhang stepped down as ByteDance CEO in 2021 and later relinquished his chairmanship, turning management over to co-founder Liang Rubo. He has largely stayed out of public view since — accumulating tens of billions of dollars in additional wealth in the process.celebritynetworth