DeepSeek founder joins China's top 10 richest for first time with $42B fortune

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has made his debut among China's 10 wealthiest people, taking seventh place with an estimated net worth of 280 billion yuan (US$42 billion), according to the latest Hurun China Rich List.

The 41-year-old was the richest newcomer on the 2026 list, published Tuesday by the Hurun Research Institute, joining an elite group of Chinese tech billionaires that includes the founders of ByteDance and Tencent.

Hurun attributed Liang's rapid rise to the growing value of DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup that has gained global attention for its AI models.

Liang was absent from the 2025 list because DeepSeek had previously presented itself as a research laboratory with no plans for commercialization, according to Hurun. This year, the research institute valued the company at more than $50 billion.

The latest ranking also highlights the growing influence of AI on the fortunes of China's wealthiest entrepreneurs.

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, 43, reclaimed the title of China's richest person with an estimated fortune of 670 billion yuan, up 200 billion yuan from a year earlier. Hurun attributed the increase partly to ByteDance's rising valuation, driven by its expansion into artificial intelligence.

Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water company Nongfu Spring, slipped to second place with 410 billion yuan, followed by CATL founder Robin Zeng with 385 billion yuan.

Tencent founder Pony Ma ranked fourth with 346 billion yuan.

Another AI entrepreneur, Chen Tianshi, 41, founder of Chinese chipmaker Cambricon, also entered the top 10 with an estimated fortune of $30.5 billion.

Outside the top 10, Wang Xingxing, 36, founder of Unitree, the world's largest humanoid robot maker by sales, made his debut at 78th with an estimated fortune of 69.5 billion yuan.

Hurun identified 263 newcomers on this year's list, reflecting growing wealth in China's artificial intelligence, semiconductor and robotics industries. The ranking is based on estimated wealth as of Sept. 1, rather than cash holdings or realized earnings.

Overall, 1,529 entrepreneurs with fortunes of at least 5 billion yuan made the ranking, up 95 from last year and the highest number since Hurun began compiling the list in 1999. Their combined wealth reached 32 trillion yuan, an increase of 7% from a year earlier.