No. 1 Zhong Shanshan.
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This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of China’s Richest 2025. See the full list here.
China’s stock markets have been on a roll, fueled by the AI boom and hopes of more stimulus measures by the government to combat a sluggish economy and the fallout of a trade war with the U.S. The benchmark CSI 300 index climbed 15% since we last measured fortunes, boosting the collective wealth of China’s 100 richest to $1.35 trillion from $1.03 trillion last year.
Two-thirds of those on the list are wealthier in this round, including Zhong Shanshan, founder of Nongfu Spring, who remains at No. 1 for the fifth year in a row. The biggest gainer in dollar terms, Zhong saw his wealth expand by $26.3 billion to $77.1 billion as the water and beverage giant reported double-digit growth in both net profit and revenue for the first six months of 2025.
ByteDance cofounder Zhang Yiming moved up one spot to second place after adding $23.7 billion to take his net worth to $69.3 billion. In a reprieve for ByteDance, its TikTok short video app warded off a potential shutdown in the U.S., after President Trump signed an executive order in September for a new joint venture company, majority owned by American investors, to oversee the popular social media platform.
Despite his fortune rising by more than a third to $62.8 billion, Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent Holdings, slipped to No. 3. Shares of the internet juggernaut, which has been investing in AI, jumped more than 40% in the past year on rising sales of online games and increased advertising on its superapp Weixin, better known as WeChat overseas.
The global craze for Labubu dolls made Pop Mart International Group founder Wang Ning the biggest gainer in percentage terms. The toy mogul’s wealth soared more than fourfold from a year ago to $22.2 billion. Cambricon Technologies chairman and CEO Chen Tianshi nearly tripled his net worth to $21 billion. Dubbed the Nvidia of China, the AI chipmaker in August reported its first-ever, half-year net profit of $140 million since its 2020 IPO.
The wealthiest of the eight newcomers this year is Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, who appears at No. 34 with a net worth of $11.5 billion. The homegrown AI firm stormed onto the world stage by launching its cost-effective AI model in January, which sent Chinese tech stocks soaring. Amid the worldwide AI boom, Zhou Chaonan, founder of data center operator Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group, made her debut at No. 85 with $5.3 billion.
Six tycoons returned to the ranks after dropping off previously, including Qian Dongqi, founder of robot vacuum maker Ecovacs Robotics, which saw its net profit in the first half of this year jump over 60% to $138 million on higher sales of its home appliances. In what was the biggest wealth decline this year in both dollar and percentage terms, Meituan chairman and CEO Wang Xing’s fortune shrank by $6.2 billion, or over 42%, to $8.4 billion as a price war with Alibaba and JD.com hit the food-delivery heavyweight’s bottom line.
Among the 14 listees who dropped off is Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group and once China’s richest person, whose property conglomerate has been selling off assets amid a liquidity crunch. The minimum net worth to make the list rose to $4.6 billion from $3.9 billion last year.
Full Coverage of China’s Richest 2025:
Editing assistance by Phisanu Phromchanya. Reporting by Enyi Hu, Shanshan Kao, Zinnia Lee, Chengbo Liu and Catherine Wang.
Methodology:
This list of mainland China’s richest was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, private databases and other sources. Net worth figures are based on exchange rates and stock prices on Oct. 17, 2025. Private companies are valued by using financial ratios and other comparisons with similar companies that are publicly traded. Some family fortunes were split. In order to facilitate comparisons among individuals with similar backgrounds, we include a number of entrepreneurs from mainland China whose citizenship is not People’s Republic of China but whose main source of wealth is the mainland. The editors reserve the right to amend the list in light of new information.
Acknowledgement:
Special thanks to Euromonitor International and other experts who helped us with our reporting and valuations, including Charlie Chai, 86Research; Roman Kalyuzhny, PM Insights; Rohit Patil, Mordor Intelligence; Alex Platt, D.A. Davidson; Saikat Saha, Mordor Intelligence; Zeng Xiaofeng, Niko Partners; and Zhang Yi, iiMedia Research.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/janeho/2025/11/05/chinas-100-richest-2025-combined-wealth-surges-nearly-a-third-to-135-trillion-bottled-water-billionaire-zhong-shanshan-is-no-1/
