2025 Forbes List of Mainland China's Richest People: Nongfu Spring (09633) founder Zhong Yuyi climbed to the top for 5 consecutive years

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on November 7, the 2025 Forbes list of the richest people in mainland China was released. Since Forbes' last count, the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index has risen 15%, driving the total wealth of the richest people on the list this year to 1.35 trillion US dollars from 1.03 trillion US dollars last year. The net worth of two-thirds of the richest people on the list has grown. Among them, Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Yuyi has topped the list for the fifth year in a row. His wealth grew by 26.3 billion US dollars to 77.1 billion US dollars, making him the richest person with the largest increase in net worth. In the first half of 2025, its drinking water and beverage giants achieved double-digit growth in net profit and revenue.

ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming's net worth grew by US$23.7 billion and jumped to second place with a wealth of US$69.3 billion. Earlier, US President Trump signed an executive order in September requesting the establishment of a joint venture controlled by US investors to be responsible for TikTok's operations in the US. This popular short video app was able to avoid being shut down, and ByteDance also ushered in a resuscitation.

Ma Huateng, chairman of the board of directors of Tencent, grew by more than one-third to reach 62.8 billion US dollars, but the ranking fell to third place. This internet giant continues to deploy in the field of artificial intelligence. Driven by the increase in online game sales and the increase in advertising revenue for the super app WeChat, the company's stock price has risen by more than 40% over the past year.

Labubu dolls are popular all over the world, and Wang Ning, the founder of Bubble Mart, also became the member with the biggest net worth increase in the list.

The toy mogul's wealth has more than tripled from last year to $22.2 billion. Cambrian Chairman and CEO Chen Tianshi nearly tripled his net worth to $21 billion. This artificial intelligence chip company, known as “China Nvidia”, announced in August its first semi-annual profit since its 2020 IPO, with a net profit of 140 million US dollars.

Among the eight new richest people on the list this year, Leung Man-fung, founder of DeepSeek (DeepSeek), ranked 34th with a net worth of 11.5 billion US dollars.

This local artificial intelligence company launched a cost-effective artificial intelligence model in January, and rapidly entered the global stage, driving a sharp rise in Chinese technology stocks. Zhou Chaonan, founder of data center operator Runze Technology, took advantage of the artificial intelligence boom that has taken the world by storm and made the list for the first time with a net worth of 5.3 billion US dollars, ranking 85th.

Six wealthy people who have fallen off the list have returned to the list this year, including Qian Dongqi, founder of Covos. Thanks to increased sales of home appliances, Covos's net profit surged by more than 60% in the first half of 2025 to reach US$138 million. Influenced by Alibaba and JD joining the competition, takeaway giant Meituan's profitability was under pressure. Chairman and CEO Wang Xing's net worth shrunk by 6.2 billion US dollars (a decrease of more than 42%) to 8.4 billion US dollars. In terms of both amount and percentage, he is the richest person with the biggest drop in net worth this year.

The lowest net worth threshold on the list this year rose from 3.9 billion US dollars last year to 4.6 billion US dollars, and 14 wealthy people fell out of the list, including Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, who was once the richest person in mainland China. His real estate enterprise group frequently sells assets due to tight liquidity.

Here are the top 10 people on the Forbes list of the richest people in mainland China: