The 15 richest people from Asia in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes Billionaires List are collectively worth more than $500 billion.
Some of the billionaires occupying the top rank are self-made and built their fortunes through tech empires, like Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company.
Others inherited wealth from their families, like Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in Asia who took over his father’s oil company, Reliance Industries.
Read on to learn more about the richest people on the world’s largest continent, who range from tech tycoons to real estate giants.
Mukesh Ambani
Net worth: $81.5 billion
Age: 63
Location: India
Industry: Energy
Source of wealth: Inherited
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $22.9 billion in the last year.
Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India and eighth-richest on the planet, took over as chairman of Reliance Industries when his father, the company’s founder, died in 2002. Reliance Industries is an oil and gas company that Ambani owns 42% of, per his Bloomberg Billionaires profile.
Ambani also founded Jio, a 4G phone service. He owns the Mumbai Indians, a professional cricket team, and a property worth more than $400 million.
Jack Ma
Net worth: $58.7 billion
Age: 55
Location: China
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Alibaba Group
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $12.1 billion in the last year.
Jack Ma, the richest person in China, co-founded Alibaba Group, the country’s largest e-commerce company. Alibaba runs Taobao, an online shopping site, along with Tmall, an online store facilitator. Ma served as the company’s executive chairman until he stepped down in 2019.
Ma also owns stakes in two Chinese entertainment industry firms and an online payment service.
A former English teacher, Ma has recently been in the news because of his widespread donations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, per BBC.
Pony Ma Huateng
Net worth: $54.2 billion
Age: 48
Location: China
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Tencent Holdings
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $15.6 billion in the last year.
Pony Ma, also known as Ma Huateng, serves as chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings, the tech company he co-founded alongside Zhang Zhidong, number 12 on this list. Tencent is best known for its instant messaging app WeChat, which has more than a billion users.
Colin Huang
Net worth: $31.4 billion
Age: 40
Location: China
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Pinduoduo
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $11.8 billion in the last year.
Colin Huang, also known as Huang Zheng, is the founder and chairman of one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, Pinduoduo. The platform has more than 628 million customers and made $4.2 billion in 2019, per Huang’s Bloomberg Billionaires profile.
Before running Pinduoduo, Huang interned at Microsoft and worked at Google, according to his Forbes profile. Additionally, Huang founded two other internet-based companies — Xinyoudi, a gaming business, and Ouku.com, another e-commerce platform.
William Ding
Net worth: $30.2 billion
Age: 49
Location: China
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; NetEase
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $11.6 billion in the last year.
William Ding runs the Beijing-based internet provider NetEase credited with localizing popular games like “Overwatch” and “Westward Journey,” according to his Bloomberg Billionaires profile. The company works with Blizzard Entertainment and Microsoft subsidiary Mojang. Aside from gaming, NetEase works with other online media entertainment like movies and music.
Tadashi Yanai
Net worth: $30.1 billion
Age: 71
Location: Japan
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Self-made; Fast Retailing
Net worth year-over-year change: Down $631 million in the last year.
Tadashi Yanai, the richest person in Japan, runs Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing. Yanai is also the founder and biggest shareholder of the clothing retailer, which happens to be Asia’s largest, according to Yanai’s Bloomberg Billionaires profile. Fast Retailing operates owns about 1,000 stores.
Yanai has a couple of golf courses in Maui, Hawaii.
Li Ka-Shing
Net worth: $28.9 billion
Age: 92
Location: Hong Kong
Industry: Real Estate
Source of wealth: Self-made; CK Hutchison Holdings
Net worth year-over-year change: Down $757 million in the last year.
Li Ka-Shing, the wealthiest person in Hong Kong, founded CK Hutchison Holdings, a vast business empire with interests in primarily retail services. In addition, Li founded another investment holding company, CK Asset Holdings, geared towards real estate services.
Li ran both companies until May 2018, when his son, Victor, took over as chairman, per his Bloomberg Billionaires profile.
CK Hutchinson made $38 billion in 2019.
Yang Huiyan
Net worth: $28.6 billion
Age: 38
Location: China
Industry: Real Estate
Source of wealth: Inherited
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $1.71 billion in the last year.
Yang Huiyan, the richest woman in Asia and only female on this list, inherited more than half of the stakes of her father’s real estate developing company, Country Garden Holdings, in 2005, per her Bloomberg billionaires profile.
Yang is currently running the company, which constructs buildings and manages hotels in China. At the same time, Yang serves as chairman of an education company, Bright Scholar Education Holdings.
Hui Ka Yan
Net worth: $28.4 billion
Age: 62
Location: China
Industry: Real Estate
Source of wealth: Self-made; China Evergrande Group
Net worth year-over-year change: Down $1.67 billion in the last year.
Hui Ka Yan serves as chairman of China Evergrande Group, a property developing company that builds in nearly 300 cities across China. Hui founded the company in 1996 with ten years of experience working in a steel factory, per his Forbes profile. Hui took the company public the following decade.
He Xiangjian
Net worth: $27.6 billion
Age: 78
Location: China
Industry: Consumer
Source of wealth: Self-made; Midea Group
Net worth year-over-year change: Up $3.99 billion in the last year.
He Xiangjian founded Midea Group, a company that exports air conditioners and produces other appliances like heaters and washing machines. He started the business in 1968 producing plastic lids and built it into one of the largest appliance companies in the world, per his Forbes profile. He stepped down from Midea’s operations in 2012, and his son He Jianfeng serves as one of Midea’s directors.
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