Technology dominates China's richest fortunes

According to figures from the Hurun Research Institute, 40 out of 73 Chinese individuals in its ranking of the top 100 fortunes derive most of their wealth from the technology, automotive, or electronics sectors. This accounts for nearly 55% of China's largest fortunes, more than double the 26% recorded in 2016.

Real estate loses its former dominance

Since 2020, the technology sector has been the main source of the largest fortunes in China. Real estate, which was the leading sector for Chinese fortunes in the 2000s, has been declining since the end of the first decade of the century. In the 2026 ranking, published on October 27, none of the largest fortunes primarily derive their wealth from real estate. In 2009, real estate fortunes represented nearly 38% of the ranking.

Top Chinese billionaires come from tech and electronics

As in the United States, the top of the ranking in China is dominated by technology and the electronics sector. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, the parent company of the social media network TikTok, has been intermittently the richest person in China since 2024. His fortune is currently estimated at nearly 100 billion dollars – nearly nine times less than Elon Musk.

European fortunes lag in tech and AI

In Europe, only one out of eight of the largest fortunes (approximately 13%) comes from technology, electronics, or automotive. Among them are Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Arista Networks and one of the earliest investors in Google, and the co-founders of SAP, the software publisher, Hasso Plattner and Dietmar Hopp.

AI leads in China but is rare elsewhere

None of the ten richest European fortunes – nor indeed any of the 96 listed by Bloomberg – were primarily built on AI. China has two among its top ten – Liang Wenfeng (DeepSeek) and Chen Tianshi (Cambricon) – and the United States has one, Jensen Huang (Nvidia).