ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming Overtakes Gautam Adani as Asia's Richest Person

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On 16 September 2026 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index put ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming at about $105 billion, making him Asia's richest person for the first time and moving him past India's Gautam Adani.
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Zhang ranked 18th in the world and Adani 20th. Elon Musk remains the world's richest at about $892 billion.
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His fortune has grown roughly eightfold since Bloomberg began tracking it at about $13 billion in March 2019, driven by ByteDance's AI businesses and its TikTok US joint venture with Oracle and Silver Lake.

●Who: Zhang Yiming, 43, Chinese founder of ByteDance
●Net worth: about $105 billion (Bloomberg Billionaires Index, 16 September 2026)
●Now Asia's richest, displacing Gautam Adani (Adani Group, India)
●Global rank: Zhang 18th, Adani 20th
●ByteDance founded 2012 with Liang Rubo. Zhang stepped down as CEO in November 2021
●Products: TikTok, its Chinese twin Douyin (2016), CapCut, the Doubao AI chatbot and the Seedance video-generation tool

Zhang Yiming

~$105 billion, world #18

Gautam Adani

~$105 billion, world #20

Elon Musk (world's richest)

~$892 billion

Zhang's net worth, March 2019

~$13 billion (when Bloomberg began tracking him)

ByteDance is privately held, so Zhang's fortune rests on estimates of its valuation. Two things lifted it: investor enthusiasm for its AI products such as the Doubao chatbot, and the 2026 deal that put TikTok's US business in a joint venture with Oracle and Silver Lake, which removed the threat of a US ban.

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General Awareness > Business & Economy > Rankings

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★Who became Asia's richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in September 2026?

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Bloomberg Billionaires Index

Daily ranking of the world's richest people published by Bloomberg, updated after each New York trading day

priority_highMust Remember

•Zhang Yiming (ByteDance): ~$105 billion, Asia's richest from 16 Sep 2026
•He displaced Gautam Adani. World's richest: Elon Musk
•ByteDance founded 2012. TikTok = international version of Douyin

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•Bloomberg and Forbes value private companies differently, so check which list a question names.

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ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming Overtakes Gautam Adani as Asia's Richest Person

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Whom did ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming overtake in September 2026 to become Asia's richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index?

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