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New quality productive forces are driving a shift in the wealth landscape within China, as 1,529 entrepreneurs with personal wealth above 5 billion yuan made the Hurun China Rich List 2026, among which ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming reclaimed the top spot with $99.7 billion, becoming China's richest person for the second time and setting a new record high. 

DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng stood among the Top 10, according to a statement Hurun sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

New quality productive forces are currently fuelling the rise of some important sectors such as AI, semiconductors, robotics and innovative drugs in China, which also become core engines of wealth growth, Chinese analysts said.

According to the statement, Zhang Yiming's wealth gain was largely driven by AI business progress that pushed the company's valuation steadily higher. Chen Tianshi of AI chipmaker Cambricon breaks into the Top 10 with $30.5 billion.

Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek is listed in the seventh place with $41.7 billion, boosted by Deepseek LLMs. Following Liang is Wang Xingxing of Unitree Robotics, who made the list with $10.3 billion.

The Hurun list serves as a window into the vitality of China's private economy, in which new quality productive forces are rising rapidly against the backdrop of accelerating the construction of a new development pattern. Strategic emerging sectors such as AI, semiconductors, robotics and innovative drugs have produced a large number of entrepreneurial founders, mirroring the vigorous dynamism of entrepreneurs devoted to Chinese-style modernization and capturing the market changes unfolding as China's economy achieves both qualitative improvements and reasonable quantitative growth, said the statement.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman, said that new faces on the rich list come mainly from semiconductors, AI, robotics and industrial products. 

"This was the year 'Made in China 2025' came home — the 10-year plan to lead in 10 key technologies. Five of this year's Top 10 and 60 percent of the Top 100 make their money from the sectors it targeted, from semiconductors and AI to robotics and new energy. The new five-year plan, which began this year, doubles down on the same bet — naming 'AI Plus', quantum technology, biomanufacturing, embodied intelligence, commercial aerospace and 6G among the frontier industries," Hoogewerf noted.

"The next rich list is already visible in this one. SpaceTech put three rocket founders on the list for the first time: Zhang Changwu of Landspace — whose Zhuque-3 reusable rocket made global headlines this summer, praised by Elon Musk as a potential Falcon 9-beater — Kang Yonglai of Space Pioneer, and Yang Yiqiang of CAS Space. We expect these names to be much 'bigger' during the next few years. Quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces do not have a rich lister yet, but it probably won't be long," Hoogewerf said.


Global Times