FX.co ★ China’s top 5 wealthiest billionaires

Zhong Shanshan, net worth: $65.9 billion

Bottled water king Zhong Shanshan overtook Jack Ma as China’s richest person. He is the chairman of the Chinese bottled water empire Nongfu Spring. Thanks to increased demand for the company's products in the local market, the businessman's fortune showed an annual surge of $12 billion. In addition, the billionaire owes the expansion of his wealth to one successful investment. He purchased shares of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy. Since last fall, the company’s shares have surged by 76%.

Zhang Yiming, net worth: $59.4 billion

This billionaire internet entrepreneur is China’s second-richest person on the Forbes list. He is known as the founding father of TikTok. The popular video service belongs to ByteDance. Zhang Yiming has been at the helm of its board of directors until recently. The billionaire stepped down as chairman of the TikTok owner amid a reorganization at ByteDance. In recent years, the company’s subsidiaries, including China’s popular news platform Toutiao, have been rapidly developing, doubling the billionaire’s capital.

Robin Zeng, net worth: $50.8 billion

The chairman of battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology has boosted his fortune over the past 12 months. His company is one of the world’s largest producers of batteries for electric cars that supplies its products to Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, and Geely. Amid mounting demand for electric vehicles in 2021, the net worth of Elon Musk’s business partner increased 2.5 times.

Ma Huateng, net worth: $49.1 billion

Tencent Holding’s Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, takes fourth place in the Forbes ranking. Today, the tech giant is one of China’s largest companies by market capitalization. Meanwhile, the popular social messaging app WeChat created by the billionaire has a social network of more than 1 billion users. Over the past year, Ma Huateng has increased his fortune to more than $49 billion, overtaking Jack Ma in the Forbes rating.

Jack Ma, net worth: $41.5 billion

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma closes the list of China’s top 5 richest persons. Over the past year, the businessman’s wealth has decreased by 37%, or $24 billion, while his brainchild has lost $344 billion. The plunge came after the Chinese authorities had scuttled the IPO of Jack Ma's Ant Group, the affiliate company of Alibaba. It could have been the largest initial public offering in history. Above all else, this spring, a fine of $2.8 dollars was imposed on the company by the Chinese watchdog as part of an antitrust investigation. It was the largest corporate fine in the history of the country.