TikTok billionaire Zhang Yiming becomes Asia's richest man as fortune tops $100B
Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok's parent company ByteDance, has become the richest person in Asia as his wealth surged to US$105.5 billion.
Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming's net worth surged past $100 billion this month, cementing his position as Asia's richest man, according to Bloomberg's analysis of recent valuations from major investment firms. The increase propelled him ahead of Indian conglomerate Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, whose wealth has been declining recently.
Zhang, the founder of ByteDance, started the company in 2012 and owns 21% of it. ByteDance, which began with the news aggregator Toutiao and later developed Douyin, now boasts a global revenue of $200 billion and posted a net profit of $42 billion in 2025. Zhang's fortune grew by over $90 billion this year alone, including a $40 billion gain so far this year.
ByteDance has been heavily investing in artificial intelligence, with products like the Doubao AI chatbot and Seedance video-generation tool, as the company aims to compete with industry giants. To support its AI endeavors, the firm recently secured a $29.6 billion loan from global banks for corporate purposes and AI research and development.
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