Irony: Beijing surpasses New York as mega-millionaire capital of the world

Beijing was home to more billionaires than any other city in the world, according to the latest annual list of Forbes published this Wednesday, beat New York in the process for the first time in seven years.

The Chinese capital has added 33 billionaires and now has 100, narrowly beating New York, which added seven billionaires last year and currently has 99., according to List of Forbes Global Billionaires 2021.

The “Big Apple” reportedly lost its first number one spot for the first time in seven years. And this one is the first ranking led by Beijing. Beijing added 33 new billionaires as China quickly recovers from pandemic woes [Covid-19], going from position 4 to 1 in our annual list, ”reports the American business magazine today.

A vibrant stock market that has particularly benefited tech industries, along with China’s toughest economy and its rapid pandemic containment, boosted the fortunes of these billionaires. However, New York billionaires’ combined net worth remained $ 80 billion, higher than their Beijing counterparts.

Beijing’s richest resident was Zhang Yiming, founder of social media sensation TikTok and CEO of parent company ByteDance, which saw his net worth double to $ 35.6 billion. On the other hand, Michael bloomberg, New York’s richest resident, had a fortune valued at $ 59,000 million.

The growth of the stock market has also helped China as a whole, adding more billionaires to the list of Forbes than any other country in the world. The Asian nation – including Hong Kong and Macau – has witnessed the recent arrival of 210 billionaires on the list. With 698 billionaires, it is quickly approaching the United States, which still tops the table with 724..

In 2020, China had 456 billionaires, compared to 614 in the United States.

Hong Kong, which ranked third in 2020, was home to 80 billionaires and added nine more to the list of Forbes last year, despite the pandemic that hit its service-based economy hard. Li Ka-shing, who retired in 2018 from CK Hutchison, the conglomerate he founded, saw his fortune drop from $ 12 billion to $ 33.7 billion last year. He remained the richest resident in the city.

“A hot stock market is behind most of the new multibillion dollar fortunes because Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes were 28% and 43% respectively last year, which increased the net worth of 136 Chinese citizens, “said Forbes. “Another 59 have joined the list as part of a historic initial public offering deal.”

A record 493 people have joined the list worldwide, about a new billionaire every 17 hours. India occupies third place in the ranking, with 140.

A quarter of the rich list’s 2,755 members live in just 10 cities.

In total, the 1,149 billionaires in Asia and the Pacific have a net worth of $ 4.7 trillion, compared to $ 4.4 trillion for billionaires in the United States.

Half of the new Chinese billionaires have made their fortunes through manufacturing or technology companies. Among them, Chen Zhiping and his wife, Kate Wang, who made money making electronic cigarettes. In the tech sector, the dramatic valuation gains of renewable or green energy companies last year boosted the fortunes of Cao Renxian, founder of Sungrow Power Supply, and Li Xiang, founder of the electric vehicle company. Li Auto.

The average net worth of 210 new Chinese members rose to $ 1.9 billion, from $ 1.5 billion last year. Of these, 26 were women. Their average age was 53 years old., ten years younger than the world average.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos remains richest person in the world for fourth year in a row. His net worth rose from $ 64 billion to $ 177 billion last year. Tesla’s Elon Musk, who came in second; saw his fortune grow from $ 126.4 billion to $ 151 billion.

THE NATION

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