Top 10 Richest Billionaires in China 2024

Jnnny Lee April 05, 2024 | 05:24

As of 2024, Zhong Shanshan, the "bottled water tycoon," remains the richest person in China, with billionaire Jack Ma still ranking among the top 10 on Forbes' list.

The founder of Nongfu Spring, a brand of mineral water, is thought to be worth $62.3 billion, down from $68 billion the previous year. Formerly ranked 15th, billionaire Zhong Shanshan is now the 24th richest person in the world this year. The "bottled water tycoon" has been China's richest person for four years running.

Learn more: The Full List of Chinese Billionaires In 2023 - Who Are The Richest People In China?

Billionaires Zhang Yiming, Colin Huang and Zhong Shanshan (from left)

Billionaire Zhang Yiming is the second richest person in China with 43.4 billion US dollars. The company that founded Byte Dance, which is the owner of the popular app TikTok, is Mr. Zhang. The businessman left his position as ByteDance Chairman in 2021. The billionaire who was born in 1983 saw a decline in his wealth this year of USD 1.6 billion.

Colin Huang, the creator of the e-commerce company PDD Holdings, now owns 38.9 billion USD, up 8.7 billion from the previous year. Colin Huang rose from fourth place on Forbes' list of the richest people in China to third place this year.

The CEO of NetEase, online game billionaire William Ding, came in fourth place with assets valued at 33.5 billion USD, up from 26.7 billion USD the year before. Pony Ma, or billionaire Ma Huateng, is ranked fifth. Owning $30.2 billion, as opposed to $35.3 billion the previous year, is the CEO of "giant" Tencent. He Xiangjian, co-founder of the Midea home appliance group, came in sixth place with 25.1 billion USD, up 1.7 billion from 2023.

Despite going "in hiding" since 2020, billionaire Jack Ma remains the 7th richest person in China this year with assets valued at $24.5 billion USD. He possessed 23.5 billion USD last year.

The richest billionaire in the Chinese auto industry, Eric Li, is ranked eighth. The owner of Zhejiang Geely Holding's assets saw a decline this year, from 19 billion USD to 16.8 billion USD. Quin Yinglin is a "livestock tycoon" who ranked ninth with $15.5 billion in assets. With USD 14.2 billion, electric vehicle billionaire Wang Chuanfu came in at number ten.

According to Forbes, there are 406 mainland Chinese billionaires on the list of world billionaires in 2024—89 fewer than the previous year. With 626 persons on the list, 2021 will mark a record number of billionaires in China. China still has the second-highest number of billionaires in the world, with 813 this year, only behind the United States. This newspaper specifically keeps track of billionaires who hold passports from Macau or Hong Kong.

Chinese billionaires now own 1.33 trillion USD, down from 1.67 trillion the previous year. The combined assets of China's top ten wealthiest individuals this year amount to 304 billion USD, a 2% decrease from 2023.