ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming don officially become di richest person for Asia, as e move pass Indian industrialist Gautam Adani. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhang fortune cross $105 billion, na im make am number one for Asia first time. Di 43-year-old na di founder of ByteDance, di parent company of TikTok.
Zhang money don grow more than eight times from around $13 billion wey dem record for March 2019. Di rise dey driven by TikTok global reach plus ByteDance artificial intelligence work, including Doubao chatbot and Seedance video generator.
As of September 17, 2026, Bloomberg estimate say Zhang Yiming and Gautam Adani both get $105 billion. But Zhang dey rank 18th for world, while Adani dey 19th. Both of dem still dey behind Bill Gates, former world richest man. Gates recently lose di multi-billion-dollar foundation backing of Warren Buffett, even though e pledge majority of im $200 billion wealth toward African development.
Meanwhile, ByteDance no become winner for global AI-driven wealth creation wave. Supported by hot capital, star AI enterprise valuations rise fast, and investors behind dem make huge profits. Since beginning of this year, ByteDance two major rivals get considerable unrealized book gains. As of early September, Alibaba total unrealized gain from investment be about 1687 billion yuan, Tencent own be about 524 billion yuan, and Meituan get about 199 billion yuan. After model companies like Zhipu AI and MiniMax collect investment from Alibaba or Tencent, dia share prices skyrocket after listing, and dem become main source of book profit for big tech companies.
ByteDance hit brakes on investment five years ago and almost miss di entire AI track, which source call considerable misjudgment. After 2018, ByteDance investment advance well well, and number reach peak in 2021. But early 2022, ByteDance basically abandon strategic investment business on grounds of strengthening business focus and reducing low-synergy investments, leaving only sporadic financial investments. During same period, global AI capital feast gradually start, but ByteDance no join. On whole, e insist on building full AI stack on im own, from models, Agents to Apps and programming software, and e no too focus on external investments. ByteDance become di only one among three Internet giants wey no make large-scale investments in star AI projects.
Recently, market sources talk say well-known investor Kai Jiang leave Coatue join ByteDance, in charge of investment team based for Hong Kong, and e go report to ByteDance CFO Gao Zun. According to people familiar with matter cited by Investment Press, Kai Jiang dey in charge of ByteDance financial investment department, which no be newly established business, and e no mean say strategic investment department wey dem cancel years ago don restart. Even so, di introduction of experienced investor wey get deep connection with ByteDance fit be remedial measure after ByteDance realize im mistake. E fit even mean say ByteDance wan learn from Tencent on investment side.
