China kept its top ranking on the Hurun Global Rich List 2022 with 1,133 billion-dollar entrepreneurs, an increase of 75 from last year, followed by the U.S. and India, according to the Hurun Research Institute. The list showed robust growth in various industries in China, including technology, consumer products and advanced manufacturing, despite a complex global environment and growing downward pressure on the domestic economy, experts said. In spite of the lingering fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of entrepreneurs with a net worth of more than USD1 billion worldwide reached a new high, totaling 3,381.
Ten of these people have more than USD100 billion in wealth, double the number of last year. Among them, the number of high net worth individuals from China and the U.S. accounted for 55% of those on the list. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the world's richest man for the second year in a row with an estimated wealth of CNY1.29 trillion, up 4% from last year, while the CEO of Nongfu Spring, Zhong Shanshan, reigned as China's richest man with CNY455 billion, 15th in the world. The cut-off date for calculating the wealth of the listed entrepreneurs was January 14, 2022. Rupert Hoogewerf, Founder and Chief Researcher of the Institute, said that since 2016, when China first surpassed the U.S., the number of billionaire entrepreneurs in the U.S. has increased more than 30%, while that of China doubled. Hoogewerf noted that China now has more than 1,100 billion-dollar entrepreneurs, 60% more than the U.S., which also exceeds the combined number of the U.S., India and the UK.
Zhong Shanshan is still China's richest man, although his wealth has dropped by nearly CNY100 billion. The ranking of ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming rose to second place in China from fifth last year, with his wealth remaining unchanged at CNY340 billion. The wealth of CATL Founder Zeng Yuqun reached CNY335 billion, growing more than CNY100 billion, making him the third-richest entrepreneur in the country. Pony Ma, Founder and CEO of Tencent, who ranked second last year, saw his wealth drop to CNY330 billion, coming in fourth this year in China, while Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Yun ranked fifth with his wealth standing at CNY235 billion.
Some 160 Chinese billionaires dropped out of the ranking, which accounted for about half of the total 337 drop-outs. E-commerce platforms, real estate, education, generic drugs and vaping were sectors that saw the biggest value evaporation. The report also showed that Shenzhen, China's tech hub, has become the world's third-largest city of residence for billion-dollar entrepreneurs, followed by Beijing and Shanghai, the Global Times reports.
