ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming becomes Asia's second richest

Zhang Yiming, the co-founder of the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, has surpassed Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s second-richest person. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhang’s net worth has climbed to $92.8 billion, cementing his position as China’s wealthiest individual.

The surge in Zhang’s fortune is attributed to a significant increase in ByteDance’s valuation, driven by the global popularity of its video platform TikTok and the success of its Doubao AI chatbot, which has amassed over 300 million monthly users in China. His wealth has grown more than sevenfold since Bloomberg began tracking it in March 2019, when he was valued at $13 billion.

A key development contributing to this reassessment was ByteDance’s recent move to transfer parts of its U.S. business to a consortium of American investors led by Oracle. This transaction, completed earlier this year, ended a period of regulatory uncertainty in the United States. Following the sale, Bloomberg lowered a risk discount applied to ByteDance’s valuation, which led to a jump of more than $24 billion in Zhang’s estimated net worth.

Analysts cited the company’s strong fundamentals. A...