TikTok's Founder Is Now Asia's Richest Person at $105B

Zhang Yiming's fortune hit $105 billion in September 2026, overtaking Gautam Adani and making the ByteDance founder Asia's richest person.

Both Celebrity Net Worth and Ynetnews report that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, 43, has become Asia's richest person for the first time, with his fortune crossing $105 billion after jumping more than $12 billion in September 2026 alone. That passes Indian industrialist Gautam Adani on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The striking part for creator-economy watchers: Zhang stepped down as ByteDance CEO in 2021 and handed day-to-day control to co-founder Liang Rubo, yet his wealth still grew roughly eightfold from the $13 billion Bloomberg recorded in March 2019 — an increase of about $92 billion in seven years, per Celebrity Net Worth.

ByteDance is privately held, so Celebrity Net Worth explains the arithmetic: Zhang is believed to own roughly 20% of the company, and a proposed General Atlantic share sale in February 2026 valued ByteDance at about $550 billion — up from an employee buyback valuation of more than $330 billion in 2025. At a $600 billion valuation, Celebrity Net Worth calculates a $120 billion stake; Bloomberg reportedly applies a 10% risk discount for illiquidity, landing near $108 billion and close to its published estimate of just over $105 billion. Rowe Price filed updated valuations.

The climb is surprising because TikTok's U.S. future looked doomed: Celebrity Net Worth recounts that a 2024 law forced divestment, the Supreme Court let it take effect, and the app briefly went dark for American users in January 2025. In January 2026, both outlets say ByteDance completed a restructuring creating TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with ByteDance retaining 19.9% — removing the ban threat. Now, per Celebrity Net Worth, the fortune is increasingly an AI one: the Doubao chatbot and Seedance video generator are driving growth. Omdia's Lian Jye Su told Ynetnews that Zhang 'stayed on course and then continued to double down on AI investment.'

Celebrity Net Worth frames the milestone as generational: Adani's fortune was built on ports, power and mining, while Zhang's came from software predicting which video you watch next — closer to Bezos, Zuckerberg and Musk than to Asia's traditional empire-builders. Adani's side of the swap was decline-driven: Ynetnews reports his fortune peaked near $120 billion in June 2026 before MSCI index rebalancing and broader market pressure hit his group's shares. The stakes ahead: ByteDance is profitable across advertising, e-commerce, gaming and AI, and if private valuations keep climbing, Celebrity Net Worth notes each further uptick adds roughly $10 billion of theoretical value to Zhang's 20% stake.