China's richest man on the Hurun list: Zhong Sui has reached the top four times, and the wealth of Li Ka-shing and his son is also shrinking
Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Liang Zhengyu
Source: Picture Worm Creative
The wealth of the world's richest is being violently reshuffled.
On March 25, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", with a total of 3,279 billion-dollar entrepreneurs on the list, an increase of 167 from last year, and a total wealth increase of 9% to 108 trillion yuan. A total of 1,933 entrepreneurs have increased their wealth from last year, of which 480 are new faces. 1,346 entrepreneurs lost their wealth, of which 278 did not make the list, and another 278 remained unchanged. 67% are self-made and 33% are inherited wealth.
"For the first time, AI has deeply influenced our list of the world's richest people. Hurun Report, chairman and chief research officer, pointed out. The list shows that more than half of the new wealth on the list of the world's richest people comes from the AI industry, and the wealth of cloud computing-related entrepreneurs such as Meta, Amazon, Google's parent company Alphabet, Oracle, and Microsoft has increased significantly.
The net worth of LVMH leaders, who are regulars on the list, has changed dramatically. Due to the poor performance of the luxury industry, Bernard Arnault, known as the "king of luxury", has shrunk his wealth by 190 billion yuan, more than any other entrepreneur, and has fallen to the third place in the world's richest list with a wealth of 1.26 trillion yuan.
China's wealth creation structure continues to change dramatically.
In the past year, more than 200 billion-dollar entrepreneurs in China have fallen off the list, and more than 50 new faces have been added, a decrease of 155 places overall, and the total wealth is nearly 19 trillion yuan, down 15% from last year.
Although there are 155 fewer billion-dollar entrepreneurs, China is still the country with the most billion-dollar entrepreneurs in the world, with 814. The United States followed with 800, an increase of 109. China and the U.S. are home to 49 percent of the world's known billion-dollar entrepreneurs, down 4 percent from last year.
Hurun said there are three reasons for the shrinking wealth of China's wealthy. First, the real estate market continues to be sluggish, for example, the wealth of the Wanda Wang Jianlin family, which was once the richest man in China, has shrunk by 72 percent, by 80 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan, an average of more than 200 million yuan per day; the wealth of the Yang Huiyan family of Country Garden has shrunk by 60 percent to 44 billion yuan; and the wealth of Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju, who once became the richest man in China in 2012, has shrunk by 10 percent last year.
Second, the stock market underperformed, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 20%, the Shenzhen Composite Index down 19%, and the Shanghai Composite Index down 7%. Third, entrepreneurs are becoming conservative and unwilling to borrow money to expand.
The 70-year-old Zhong's wealth shrank by 9% from last year, and he became China's richest man for the fourth time in a row with a net worth of 450 billion yuan, ranking 21st in the world, down 6 places. Nongfu Spring, a Hong Kong-listed company under Zhong, performed well in the first half of last year, with sales revenue and profit rising by 14% and 16% year-on-year, and Nongfu Spring ranked 211th in the "2023 Hurun Global 500". Wantai Biotech, another A-share listed company under Zhong's company, has seen its performance decline in the past year, with its share price falling nearly 30% year-on-year, and the company's market value shrinking by 35 billion yuan compared with the same period last year.
"One of the most prominent Chinese entrepreneurs in recent years is Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo, who has become the entrepreneur with the most growing wealth in China for two consecutive years, and it is hard to imagine that he founded Pinduoduo less than 10 years ago, and has entered the top 30 global entrepreneurs, and the market value of Pinduoduo also surpassed Alibaba for the first time last year, and it should be one of the most successful brands in China going overseas. Hurun introduced.
Interestingly, some entrepreneurs have been likened by Hurun to the "elevator king" – "wealth is like taking an elevator, rising rapidly and falling rapidly".
Boosted by Amazon Cloud Computing's market share, Jeff Bezos' wealth has rebounded sharply this year, increasing by 480 billion yuan to 1.33 trillion yuan after shrinking by 470 billion yuan last year, ranking second in the world. Alphabet Larry Page's wealth shrank by 270 billion yuan and increased by 350 billion yuan, ranking ninth in the world with 890 billion yuan.
In China, Zeng Yuqun of the CATL era saw his wealth rise by more than 200 billion yuan in the first two years and drop by more than 200 billion yuan in the past two years, ranking eighth in China and 65th in the world with 165 billion yuan; Li Xiang's wealth of Li Xiang of Li Auto shrank by 12 billion yuan last year and increased by 17 billion yuan this year.
In the past year, 39 billion-dollar entrepreneurs have died, the highest number on record. In total, they left a fortune of nearly 2 trillion yuan to their family members.
The youngest is Tang Xiaoou, the founder of SenseTime, who died at the age of 55. There are 16 over 90 years old, with Britain's Jacques Gaston Murray (last year's fortune of $7.5 billion) being 103 years old, and Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger (last year's fortune of $15.5 billion) being 99 years old. Other Chinese entrepreneurs who have passed away include Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou, Chimei Group founder Xu Wenlong, WuXi AppTec co-founder Zhao Ning, and CITIC Financial Holding's Gu Lin Ruihui.