5 of China’s richest men in 2025 – net worths, ranked: from the founder of TikTok’s parent company to Tencent’s Pony Ma and the CEO of Tesla’s battery supplier … but No 1 isn’t a tech entrepreneur

Mar 19 , 2025

The founders of some of China’s biggest tech and energy companies, including Zhang Yiming (left), Robin Zeng and Pony Ma, top the Forbes rich list. Photos: AFP/Reuters/Getty Images

Zhang Yiming started ByteDance in a Beijing apartment, while Colin Huang’s PDD is now one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms – here are the 5 who top the rich list, according to Forbes

With Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company – making their mark at home and around the world, their founders have consistently appeared on the country’s rich list. But despite the rapid growth of the Chinese technology scene, Forbes’ 2024 list reveals that the world’s richest Chinese person found his fortune capitalising on one of the most crucial commodities: water.

Here, we look at the business leaders topping China’s rich list and which industries continue to thrive in the country’s shifting economic climate.

5. Robin Zeng

Net worth: US$37.1 billion

Robin Zeng, CEO of Chinese battery producer Contemporary Amperex Technology. Photo: Getty Images

Capitalising on the shift towards clean energy and the growing demand for electric vehicles, Robin Zeng, founder, chairman and CEO of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), has become the fifth richest person in China little more than a decade after starting the company. CATL supplies batteries to car makers BMW, Tesla and Volkswagen, as well as Chinese firm Geely.

Despite the company’s revenue falling last year, it managed to raise net profits by 15 per cent thanks to a drop in raw material prices, per the Hurun Report. And with close to a 40 per cent market share in the power-battery industry, Zeng, 57, shows no sign of stopping. In a recent interview with Reuters, he revealed continuing plans to build plants on US soil if Donald Trump agrees to Chinese investment in the American EV industry.

4. Colin Huang

Net worth: US$43.9 billion

Colin Huang, founder of e-commerce company Temu, pictured in 2018. Photo: AFP

In only two decades since beginning his career at Google in 2004, 44-year-old Colin Huang has become the fourth richest person in China.

When software engineer Huang founded Pindoudou in 2015, the online retail market was already saturated with the likes of Alibaba and JD.com, per China Business Knowledge. Huang would expand his e-commerce platform – renamed PDD Holdings in 2023 – making it one of the largest in the country. The company also launched shopping site Temu in 2022, going head-to-head with mass online retailer Shein, per Forbes.

Huang stepped down as chairman of the company in 2021, while remaining a major shareholder. He once held the title of China’s richest person, but with stock prices plunging almost 29 per cent last August, he lost US$14 billion, per Bloomberg.