The next technological revolution may come from outside of Silicon Valley. In Forbes’ first-ever tally of tech billionaires, 33 of the 100 richest hailed from Asia. China led the way with 20 from mainland and one from Hong Kong, second only to America’s 51.
Alibaba Alibaba founder Jack Ma came out on top as Asia’s richest tech billionaire, as internet entrepreneurs dominated the top of the list. Despite Alibaba’s tumbling share price after its record breaking $25 billion IPO last September, Ma still clocked in at $23.2 billion. Part of his fortune comes from his growing financial services company Ant Financial, which operates popular electronic payment platform Alipay and online money-market fund Yu’e Bao. Ant Financial was spun off from Alibaba in 2011, and Ma has ambitions to take the company public in Asia one day.
Rival online shopping giant JD.com JD.com’s Liu Qiangdong saw his net worth jump over $1.5 billion in the last five months, the second biggest leap among Asians on the March billionaire ranks, as his company’s shares climbed nearly 20% in that time span.
Hiroshi Mikitani, founder of Japan’s biggest e-commerce company, also saw his wealth increase since February. His Rakuten paid $300 million for an 11.9% stake in Lyft in March, and led a $100 million investment round for Pinterest in 2013.
Ma Huateng, the man behind China’s wildly popular instant messenger QQ and mobile chat app WeChat, is the second richest Asian tech titan with $17.9 billion. His internet media company Tencent’s co-founder Zhang Zhidong , who retired at age 43, also made the list with $6.4 billion.
Meanwhile, Chinese search engine architect Robin Li continues to see his fortune slip, as he checked in at no. 7 among the Asian tech billionaires. Baidu’s shares have dropped nearly one-fifth in the past 12 months as it tries to adapt to an increasingly mobile-oriented landscape. The company announced an investment in Uber in December 2014, eight months after Alibaba poured money into competitor Lyft. The deal will bring collaboration between the two companies as Uber tries to break into a Chinese market dominated by domestic cab hailing apps backed by Alibaba and Tencent.
Leading the Asian consumer electronics market is Xiaomi’s Lei Jun, known for creating affordably-priced smartphones. His five-year-old company is spreading its wings outside of China by offering products in the Philippines, Malaysia and India, among others. Lei Jun’s estimated net worth ($13.4 billion) has surpassed that of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee ($10 billion) and his son Jay Y. Lee ($7.6 billion), although the duo are still the two richest in South Korea. Samsung recently posted disappointing numbers for its second quarter, with an 8% decline in profit year-over-year. An additional three from South Korea made the ranks.
Another heavy hitter in the Asian mobile market, Masayoshi Son made the list at no. 17. His Japanese telecommunications and internet services firm SoftBank owns a 78% stake in Sprint, and is expanding into the Korean e-commerce market with a $1 billion investment, but it was his once very lucrative investment in Yahoo Japan that pushed him into these ranks. (Tycoons whose fortunes came just from telecom were not eligible). India came out trailing with only two on the list, but long established IT services moguls Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar are both among the top five Asians.
Two entrepreneurs who did not make Forbes’ 2015 Billionaires List are now big names in tech. Hong Kong’s Zhou Qunfei is one of the richest women in Asia, with a net worth of $7.5 billion. The former factory worker has become one of the world’s top female self-made billionaires by producing glass covers found on smartphones, tablets and computers. Her company, Lens Technology, went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in March.
Another newcomer, Frank Wang, made his fortune in commercializing drones. Unlike some of his Chinese peers, whose companies followed in the footsteps of foreign counterparts like Amazon or Google to create success, Wang’s DJI was a pioneer in bringing ready-to-fly drones to consumers. His company reportedly owns 70% of the global consumer drone market, and 70% of their sales come from outside of Asia. This past February, DJI sponsored the world’s first drone film festival in New York, where all the entries focused on aerial cinematography.
Asia’s Richest Tech Billionaires:
| World Rank | Asia Rank | Name |
| 7 | 1 | Jack Ma |
| 11 | 2 | Ma Huateng |
| 13 | 3 | Azim Premji |
| 14 | 4 | Shiv Nadar |
| 16 | 5 | Lei Jun |
| 17 | 6 | Masayoshi Son |
| 18 | 7 | Robin Li |
| 19 | 8 | Lee Kun-Hee |
| 23 | 9 | Hiroshi Mikitani |
| 24 | 10 | Liu Qiangdong |
| 26 | 11 | William Ding |
| 29 | 12 | Jay Y. Lee |
| 30 | 13 | Zhou Qunfei |
| 33 | 14 | Zhang Zhidong |
| 34 | 15 | Terry Gou |
| 41 | 16 | Jia Yueting |
| 48 | 17 | Qi Shi & family |
| 54 | 18 | Frank Wang |
| 55 | 19 | Jiang Bin |
| 55 | 20 | Li Zhongchu |
| 55 | 21 | Lin Xiucheng & family |
| 55 | 22 | Barry Lam |
| 60 | 23 | Fu Liquan & family |
| 60 | 24 | Kwon Hyuk-Bin |
| 62 | 25 | Wang Wenjing |
| 68 | 26 | Pan Zhengmin & family |
| 73 | 27 | Jason Chang |
| 73 | 28 | Xue Xiangdong & family |
| 79 | 29 | Kim Jung-Ju |
| 80 | 30 | Zhou Yahui & family |
| 88 | 31 | Tian Ming |
| 92 | 32 | Kim Beom-Su |
| 95 | 33 | Yi Zheng |
Source: Forbes
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