Zhang Yiming Net Worth: TikTok mogul overtakes Mukesh Ambani, becomes Asia's second-richest person

Zhang Yiming has surpassed Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The ByteDance co-founder is now Asia's second-richest person, according to Bloomberg. His net worth has climbed to $92.8 billion. He is also confirmed as China's richest individual. Zhang's fortune has grown more than sevenfold since March 2019. Bloomberg started tracking his wealth that month, when he was worth $13 billion. The surge reflects ByteDance's expanding global footprint and AI ambitions. Two key drivers have powered this rise. TikTok continues to perform strongly as a global video platform. ByteDance's Doubao has also become China's most popular AI chatbot. It has amassed over 300 million monthly users, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance is now betting heavily on artificial intelligence. It discusses expenditures of up to $70 billion in 2026. The goal is to lead China's AI market and challenge top US players globally. Much of this investment is expected to come from the roughly $50 billion profit ByteDance earned in 2025. The company also remains a strong candidate for an eventual initial public offering. Earlier in 2026, ByteDance transferred parts of its US business to American investors. A consortium led by Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX took over TikTok's US operations. This ended years of political and regulatory uncertainty in the country. Bloomberg applied a 25% risk discount to ByteDance's valuation. That followed a US House of Representatives bill passed in March 2024. The bill sought to ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner sold the app. The discount was lowered to 10% on 2 June. This reflected the completed US sale and fresh institutional valuations filed in late May. Zhang's wealth jumped by more than $24 billion, following that reassessment. Bloomberg analysed valuations from BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, HSG and General Atlantic. "The jump in valuation reflects the company's strong fundamentals. The developments in the US are unlikely to have a major negative impact," Bloomberg quoted Shanghai-based analyst Amy Lin as saying. Singapore-based tech analyst Ke Yan of DZT Research also weighed in. "Removing the US overhang unlocked the re-rating of the remaining ByteDance entity. Even with the re-rating, the valuation still looks cheap on fundamentals," he told the publication. Richest Asian Mukesh Ambani dropped to third-richest in Asia, according to Bloomberg. His net worth stands at $86.9 billion. Gautam Adani retained the top spot in Asia at $117.4 billion, according to the publication. However, Forbes’ real-time billionaire list still lists Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian, with a net worth of $89.5 billion. Gautam Adani is the second Asian with $86.3 billion. With a net worth of $69.3 billion, Zhang Yiming is still ranked 3rd among the richest Asians by Forbes. On the same list, Elon Musk is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $826.1 billion. He is followed by Larry Ellison, who is far behind with $296 billion. The third position is held by Larry Page with a $295 billion valuation.