WORLD ADDS 412 BILLIONAIRES – 8 BILLIONAIRES A WEEK - TO TAKE TOTAL RECORD TO 3,228 BILLIONAIRES.

ELON MUSK OF TESLA ADDS RECORD US$151BN TO BECOME RICHEST MAN IN WORLD FOR FIRST TIME, WITH US$197BN.

CHINA PULLS AWAY FROM USA, LEADING WITH 1058 BILLIONAIRES, UP 259, COMPARED WITH USA WITH 696 BILLIONAIRES, UP 70. CHINA AND USA MAKE UP OVER HALF OF ’KNOWN’ BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD.

INDIA THIRD WITH 177, UP 40. GERMANY, UK AND SWITZERLAND FOLLOW WITH 100+ EACH.

JEFF BEZOS, LAST YEAR‘S RICHEST MAN, SECOND WITH US$189BN, DESPITE ADDING US$49BN.

BERNARD ARNAULT, BILL GATES, AND MARK ZUCKERBERG IN THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH PLACES WITH US$114BN, US$110BN, AND US$101BN. RECORD FIVE INDIVIDUALS CROSS US$100BN MARK.

LUXURY SURGE. BERTRAND PUECH OF HERMES ADDS US$25BN TO US$80BN, MAKING THIS FIRST TIME TWO FROM THE LUXURY INDUSTRY IN TOP 10, THE OTHER BEING BERNARD ARNAULT OF LVMH WITH US$114BN.

CALIFORNIA-BASED AUSTIN RUSSEL, AT 25YRS, OF CAR SENSOR MAKER LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE WITH US$3.5BN, FOLLOWED BY UK-BASED BENJAMIN FRANCIS (US$1.1BN) OF GYMSHARK, HK-BASED SAM BANKMAN-FRIED (US$10BN) OF BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM FTX, AS WELL AS ANDY FANG (US$2.8BN) AND STANLEY TANG (US$2.8BN) OF US FOOD DELIVERY PLATFORM DOORDASH, ALL 28YRS.

BEIJING IS WORLD‘S BILLIONAIRE CAPITAL FOR THE 6TH YEAR RUNNING WITH 145 BILLIONAIRES LIVING THERE. NEW YORK SLIPS TO THIRD PLACE, AFTER SHANGHAI ADDED 30 BILLIONAIRES TO 113. SIX OF TOP 10 CITIES WITH HIGHEST CONCENTRATION OF BILLIONAIRES ARE NOW IN CHINA.

CORONOVIRUS DROVE UP BILLIONAIRES FROM HEALTHCARE AND RETAIL FASTEST. SPECIFIC WINNERS WERE ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND ECOMMERCE.

ZHONG SHANSHAN, 67, OF BOTTLE WATER MAKER NONGFU WAS THE BIGGEST NEW FACE, SHOOTING STRAIGHT INTO THE TOP 10 WITH US$85BN AND ASIA’S NUMBER ONE SLOT.

TIKTOK FOUNDER ZHANG YIMING, 38, ADDS US$40BN TO BREAK INTO TOP 30 WITH US$60BN

FAST RISERS. HUANG ZHENG, 41, OF ECOMMERCE PLATFORM PINDUODUO ADDS US$51BN TO BREAK INTO TOP 20 WITH US$69BN. BRIAN ARMSTRONG, 38, OF CRYPTO EXCHANGE COINBASE ADDS US$10BN TO BREAK INTO TOP 200 WITH US$11.5BN.

CALIFORNIA-BASED ERIC YUAN ZHENG, 51, OF ZOOM CONTINUED TO DEFY GRAVITY, WITH WEALTH RISING FOUR-FOLD TO US$19BN.

BRIAN CHESKY, 39, OF AIRBNB, SAW HIS WEALTH REBOUND, TRIPLING TO US$14.5BN

LEADING AUTHORITY ON GLOBAL WEALTH RELEASES 10TH HURUN GLOBAL RICH LIST.

Key Findings

1.       3,228 BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD, UP FROM 414 LAST YEAR AND 1,039 OR 47% FROM FIVE YEARS AGO.

2.       WEALTH HITS NEW RECORDS, AGAIN: DESPITE CORONAVIRUS TOTAL WEALTH OF BILLIONAIRES ROSE US$3.5TN OR 32% TO US$14.7TN.

3.       BY CONTINENT. ASIA ACCOUNTS FOR 51% OF THE WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES, AND 45% OF THEIR WEALTH, COMPARED WITH NORTH AMERICA WITH 24% OF THE BILLIONAIRES AND 33% OF THE WEALTH.

4.       Rise of India. India now has 209 billionaires, of which 177 live in india, compared with 689 in the US. india last year added billionaires at a similar rate to the US, 50 compared with 69.

5.       BY INDUSTRY. RETAIL GENERATED 10.3% OF TOTAL WEALTH, FOLLOWED BY CONSUMER GOODS 9.6%, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT 8.2% AND SOFTWARE & SERVICES 7.9%. BY NUMBER OF BILLIONAIRES, HEALTHCARE AND REAL ESTATE WERE THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF WEALTH FOR 8.7% OF BILLIONAIRES EACH, FOLLOWED BY CONSUMER GOODS 8.6%, INVESTMENTS 8.2% AND RETAIL 8.0%.

6.       GOING UP: 2312 SAW THEIR WEALTH INCREASE, OF WHICH 610 WERE NEW FACES. FOR NEW FACES, CHINA LED WITH 318, FOLLOWED BY THE USA AND INDIA WITH 95 AND 50. NEW FACES CAME FROM HEALTHCARE (84), SOFTWARE & SERVICES (69), CONSUMER GOODS (62), RETAIL (42), INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS (38) AND FOOD & BEVERAGES (37).

7.       FASTEST RISERS IN ONE YEAR. 161 INDIVIDUALS ADDED US$5BN OR MORE TO THEIR WEALTH OVER THE PAST YEAR, LED BY 84 FROM CHINA, 38 FROM USA AND 5 FROM INDIA.

8.       DOWN. ONLY 635 SAW THEIR WEALTH DECREASE AND THERE WERE 194 DROPOFFS. 32 DIED.

9.       121 ARE FORTY OR UNDER, OF WHICH 77 ARE SELF-MADE, UP 32 FROM LAST YEAR. 77 SELF-MADE AND 44 INHERITED.

10.    231 SELF-MADE WOMEN, UP 51 FROM LAST YEAR. CHINA DOMINATED WITH 66% OF THE WORLD’S SELF-MADE WOMEN BILLIONAIRES, LED BY ZHONG HUIJUAN, 60, OF DRUG-MAKER HANSOH WITH US$23BN. RICHEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD IS ALICE WALTON, 71, OF WALMART, WITH US$74BN.

11.    13.4% ARE IMMIGRANT BILLIONAIRES, UP FROM 10.6%. USA LED WITH 101 FIRST GENERATION IMMIGRANT BILLIONAIRES, FOLLOWED BY 46 IN THE UK AND 29 IN SWITZERLAND. ELON MUSK OF TESLA (BORN SOUTH AFRICA) AND SERGEY BRIN OF GOOGLE (BORN RUSSIA) ARE THE RICHEST IMMIGRANTS.

12.    BLOCKCHAIN HAD 17 BILLIONAIRES, MAINLY FROM CRYPTO CURRENCY.

13.    71% SELF-MADE AND 29% INHERITED. OF THOSE WHO INHERITED A FORTUNE, 72% HAVE GROWN IT AGGRESSIVELY, EG MUKESH AMBANI OF RELIANCE INHERITED THE BEST PART OF US$10BN IN 2002 AND HAS GROWN THAT TO US$83BN TODAY.

14.    69% B2C, 31% B2B. 69% MADE THEIR MONEY FROM SELLING TO CONSUMERS, WHILST 31% SELL TO BUSINESSES.

15.    63% SELL PHYSICAL PRODUCTS, OF WHICH 83% MANUFACTURE THEIR OWN PRODUCTS. 37% SELL SOFTWARE & SERVICES.  

16.    Dropouts. This year’s highest profile dropouts were Luckin Coffee founders Lu Zhengyao (US$4bn last year) and Jenny Qian Zhiya, 44, after Luckin was found to have fraudulently increased their profits. Chen Feng (US$2bn last year) of debt-ridden HNA dropped out after the government pulled the plug on its massive debts. Adam Neumann dropped out after WeWork’s failed IPO. Markus Braun of Wirecard was arrested for a US$2bn accounting scandal. EasyJet, a Covid-19 casuality, was 90% down in revenues, with the result that Clelia Haji-Ioannou (49), Polys Haji-Ioannou (60) and Stelios Haji-Ioannou (51) dropped off. A 20% devaluation in the Brazilian Lira coupled with a 30% reduction in the share price of Camargo Corrêa dropped Regina De Camargo Pires Oliveira Dias (65), Renata De Camargo Nascimento (68) and Rosana Camargo De Arruda Botelho (69) from this year’s list.

(2 March 2021, Beijing and Mumbai) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Rich List 2021, a ranking of the US Dollar billionaires in the world. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 15 January 2021. This is the tenth year of the ranking. Shimao Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Port City, a real estate development in Zhuhai, is the title sponsor of the list.

The List at a glance

The Hurun Global Rich List 2021 ranked 3228 billionaires from 2402 companies and 68 countries.

2312 saw their wealth increase, of which 610 were new faces. 635 saw their wealth decrease, and there were 194 drop-offs. 32 died. 282 saw their wealth stay the same. The average age is 65.

Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “Despite the disruption caused by Covid-19, this year has seen the biggest wealth increase of the last decade. A stock markets boom, driven partly by quantitative easing, and flurry of new listings have minted eight new dollar billionaires a week for the past year. The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year, much more than perhaps could have been expected for a year so badly disrupted by Covid-19.”

“The speed of wealth creation is nothing short of staggering.  Three individuals added more than US$50bn in a single year, led by Elon Musk with US$151bn, on the back of the rise of e-cars, whilst e-commerce billionaires Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Colin Huang of Pinduoduo added US$50bn each. At this rate, expect to see fifty or more break through the US$100bn mark within the next five years.”

“China has added more new faces than the rest of the world combined, and pulled away big time from the USA in the past year. Despite the Trade War with the USA, China added 259 new billionaires, to become the first country in the world to top 1000 ‘known’ dollar billionaires with 1058, more than the combined total of the next three countries of the USA, India and Germany. In the last five years, China has added 490 billionaires, compared with 160 in the US.”

“Asia has, for the first time in perhaps hundreds of years, more billionaires than the rest of the world combined. Wealth creation is moving to Asia.”

“Elon Musk is the fourth person to take the title of the Richest Person in the World in the last decade, and at 49yrs is the youngest. Bill Gates was Number One four times, Jeff Bezos three times and Carlos Slim Helu twice.”

“Don’t bet against the billionaires. The first two months of the outbreak wiped out massive amounts of wealth, the second two months saw a V-shaped recovery and since June the new economy, led by digital, has boomed to record heights.”

“EVs, e-commerce, blockchain and biotech have been the fastest growing industries of the past year.”

“Billionaires have added in the past year the equivalent of the GDP of Germany to take their wealth to the equivalent of China. They added US$3.5tn to take their total wealth to US$14.7tn, a huge concentration of economic power.”

“We are currently right in the heart of a new industrial revolution, with the ABCDEs – that is AI, blockchain, cloud, data and ecommerce - creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and leading to a concentration of wealth and economic power on a scale never seen before. The world’s billionaires now have US$14 trillion of wealth between them, more than the GDP of China last year.”

“The cut-off to make the Top 10 ten years ago was US$25bn, today it is US$80bn. To make the Top 100 or Top 1000 has also more than doubled.”

“Billionaires are growing in social influence. Bill Gates, for example, has over 50 million followers on Twitter, followed by Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey with over 40 million followers. In China, the likes of Jack Ma of Alibaba and Lei Jun of mobile phone maker Xiaomi have over 20 million viewers on Weibo. Former US President Donald Trump used to have the biggest social media following with over 80 million followers, before being banned from Twitter and other social media in January.”

 “It has been a good year for the stock markets generally. Nasdaq and Shenzhen led the way with an increase of just over 40%, followed by India and Japan over 20%. The US dollar depreciated against the Euro by 9%, Chinese Yuan 7% and British Pound by 3%, whilst rising against the Russian Rouble by 16% and Indian Rupee by 2%."

“First generation immigrant billionaires are on the rise, accounting for 14% of the list, up from 11% last year. The countries with the most first generation immigrant billionaires are the US, UK, Switzerland, Singapore and Russia.”

“Traditional HK entrepreneurs of the likes of Lee Shau Kee, Li Ka-shing and Henry Chen are now being dwarfed by their mainland counterparts. Within the Top 50 in China, only three Hong Kong entrepreneurs still make the cut. Shenzhen has overtaken its neighbour Hong Kong in terms of the number of billionaires living there 105 to 82.”

“Billionaires are not keeping up with philanthropy, making money much faster than they are giving it away.”

“How many billionaires are there in the world? The world today has probably 7500 dollar billionaires, up 1000 on last year, assuming that for every one we found, we have probably missed at least one if not more, particularly from the Gulf states.  We have found 696 billionaires in the USA, for example, suggesting the true number should be at least double that, perhaps as many as 1500. In China, we have found over 1000, but the actual number is probably closer to 2500.”

“The Hurun Global Rich List tells the story of the world economy through the stories of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs”.

Shimao spokesman said, “Shimao Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Port City is delighted to be the title sponsor of the Hurun Global Rich List 2021, a bellwether of the world economy and the new engine of China's economic growth. It is opposite Hong Kong, next to Macao and transits around the world, enjoying the dividends of two national policies, namely, Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative. It is a world-class port property on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and ‘three places interchange’ in China. Shimao has teamed up with the designers and builders of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and over 300 international masters to create a blueprint for the future global coastal city. It will gather 1 coastal park, 2 international convention and cultural centers and theme businesses, 5 luxury hotel clusters, and plans to introduce 20 headquarters of multinational enterprises. In the future, it will become a global economic bridgehead and tourist destination.”

Top Ten - Hurun Global Rich List 2021

3 new faces in the Top 10: Elon Musk, Zhong Shanshan, and Bertrand Puech. The Top 10 added US$169bn over the year and are now worth US$1.1 trillion or 7.5% of the total list. 6 are from the USA, 2 from France and 2 from the emerging economies of China and India. The Top 10 grew their wealth over 50% on average.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2021

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 10

Elon Musk, 49, has become the world's richest person, adding US$151bn over the last year, which works out at just under a billion dollars every two days, to take him to US$197bn. The bulk of his wealth is from his 21% share of Tesla, which is worth just under US$800bn. SpaceX, in which Musk has a 52% share, added US$13bn in value in the past year, after becoming the first private company to put people into orbit, an achievement previously claimed by just three global superpowers. Musk has not been far from the headlines all year, most recently last month, when he announced a US$1.5bn investment from Tesla into bitcoin. Other projects that have gained attention include the Boring Company which has been digging tunnels to operate high-speed rail service around the Las Vegas Convention Center and Neuralink, which aims to create a working brain to machine interface. Curiously, in 2013, Musk almost sold Tesla to Google for US$11bn.

Jeff Bezos, 57, is second with US$189bn, up from US$49bn. Bezos and Musk now make up the ‘Big Two’ in the world, alternating for the title of the richest person, and competing in the field of space exploration. In the past year, Bezos committed US$10bn to combat climate change and bought an estate in Beverly Hills, California, for US$165mn.  Ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, 50, was also up US$17bn to US$61bn to maintain a Top 25 place.

‘Luxury King’ Bernard Arnault, 71, of LVMH dropped down to one place to third with US$114bn. At the outset of the outbreak, Arnault was down US$25bn but has since bounced back to end the year with 7% more than last year. The biggest news for Arnault this year was the successful takeover of US luxury brand Tiffany for US$16bn in December, with his son Alexandre Arnault taking a senior leadership position there.

Bill Gates, 65, was fourth with US$110bn, up 4%. Gates made the headlines in March last year after resigning as a director of Microsoft, to focus on his philanthropy. Gates has become the largest farmland owner in the USA with holdings of 242,000 acres of land. The Gates Foundation donated US$250mn towards Covid relief.

Mark Zuckerberg, 36, who became a billionaire at the age of 23, broke through the US$100bn mark for the first time to keep a Top 5 place with his wealth up 20%. Facebook today has 2.8 billion registered users, up 12%, despite facing growing anti-trust headwinds from the US government.  Zuckerberg continued to make headlines this past year, first for changing the privacy policy of WhatsApp that allows Facebook to share its extensive data and second with the decision to block news content in Australia.

Warren Buffett, 90, of Berkshire Hathaway, hung on to a Top 10 spot, with US$91bn, despite losing US$11bn last year, more than any other billionaire on the list. Berkshire Hathaway’s most substantial investments are in Apple and Bank of America, totalling over US$90bn, and in the past year bought Dominion Energy Natural Gas assets in a US$10bn deal.

‘Bottled Water King’ Zhong Shanshan, 67, took the world by surprise, when he became the first Chinese to break into the Hurun Global Rich List Top 10 with a personal fortune of US$85bn on the back of bottled water Nongfu Spring’s Hong Kong IPO last September. Hangzhou-based Zhong, who overtook Mukesh Ambani to become the richest Asian, also listed a vaccine business he founded, which today has a market cap of over US$10bn, making him one of only a handful of entrepreneurs in the world today to found more than one US$10bn business.

Mumbai-based Mukesh Ambani, 63, saw his wealth up 24% to US$83bn, on the back of a surge in the value of energy and telecom giant Reliance. India's largest exporter, Reliance accounts for 8% of the country’s exports and 5% of India's total revenues from customs and excise duty. Reliance is planning a calculated shift to renewable energy and has decided to venture into the battery-making business ahead of the electric vehicle boom.

Steve Ballmer, 64, kept a Top 10 place with a 19% increase in his wealth to US$80bn, on the back of Microsoft’s share price surge. The owner of NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, Ballmer has donated US$2bn towards helping lift Americans out of poverty.

Bertrand Puech & family, 84, of French luxury giant Hermes, broke into the Top 10 for the first time, after a 45% increase in his wealth to US$80bn. The fifth-generation descendant of founder Thierry Hermès, Puech and family own 67% of Hermès.

Table - Comparisons with the Top 10 Five Years and Ten Years ago

In the last decade, the Number One’s wealth has gone up four-fold, and doubled over five years. Only five of those in the Top 10 five and ten years ago are still there today.

Five Years Ago                                                                                                                                                     Ten Years Ago          

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Where they live

China has pulled away big time from the USA in the past year, adding 259 to 1058 to become the first country in the world to top 1000 ‘known’ dollar billionaires. The USA is second with 696 billionaires, up 70. Between the ‘Big Two’, China and the USA have 54% of the ‘known’ billionaires on the planet. India added 40 to solidify its third place, followed by Germany, the UK, and Switzerland, each with more than 100 ‘known’ billionaires.

Beijing is the billionaire capital of the world with 145 billionaires living there. Shanghai overtook New York to second place, with 113 billionaires. Shenzhen added 30 billionaires to overtook its neighbour Hong Kong and London for fourth place. Six of the Top 10 cities with the most billionaires were in China.

Table: Where they live

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2021

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 30

Greater China: The world’s absolute No. 1 when it comes to billionaires, with more than the next three countries combined.

Low-key Zhong Shanshan took not just the world, but also China, by surprise when he shot to Number One in China, making his money in bottled water. Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent added US$30bn to keep him at second place with US$74bn. Colin Huang Zheng, 41, continued his meteoric rise, adding US$51bn to third place with US$69bn. Last year’s Number One Jack Ma Yun of Alibaba, 57, dropped out of the Top Three for the first time in three years, after China’s regulators reined in Ant Group and Alibaba on anti-trust issues. Another big surprise was Zhang Yiming, 38, of ByteDance, who broke into the Top 5 after a surge in the popularity of TikTok in China and across the world. Following the IPO of Kuaishou, which today has a valuation of around US$200bn, the much bigger ByteDance is now looking at potentially being one of Top 10 most valuable companies in the world.

For the first time since records began, there is no real estate entrepreneur in the China Top 10 with Li Ka-shing and Xu Jiayin both dropping out of the Top 10.

The combined wealth of the China-resident billionaires was US$4.5 trillion, up 73% on last year.

Led by Beijing, 6 Chinese cities made the top 10 cities and 9 in the Top 30. The average age is 59, six years younger than the average of the global list. China is the number 1 in the world in terms of generating self-made billionaires and is home to 70% of the world’s self-made female billionaires. 15 non-Chinese billionaires, up from 9, were living in China, mostly in HK. John Oyler, 53, of cancer treatment biotech BeiGene was the richest non-Chinese living in mainland China, with his wealth more than doubling to US$3.3bn.

876 saw their wealth increase, of which 316 were new faces. 127 decreased and 59 dropped off. 55 stayed the same. Notable increases include:

·       Elon Musk may be leading the world with Tesla, but China’s e-car industry is booming, led by Zeng Yuqun, 53, of lithium battery maker CATL. Zeng, the Hurun Person of the Year 2020, broke into the Top 50 with a US$34bn fortune, up US$20bn in a year, followed by the ‘Big Three’ traditional carmakers: Li Shufu, 58, of Geely added US$10bn in the year to take him to US$25bn, whilst Wang Chuanfu, 55, of BYD and Wei Jianjun, 57, of Great Wall Motors, each tripled to US19bn. Of the ‘new kids on the block’, He Xiaopeng, 44, of Xpeng saw his wealth double to US$11bn and Li Bing, 47, of Nio saw his wealth rise 10-fold to US$10bn. There were even two e-bike makers who made the list this year: Dong Jinggui, 51, of Yadea with US$4.6bn and Li Yinan, 51, of Niu Technologies with US$1.2bn.

·       Wang Xing, 42, of food delivery platform Meituan, the Hurun Person of the Year 2019, saw his wealth more than quadruple to US$34bn and a Top 50 place in the world.

·       Video streaming in China has had a bumper year in general, led by the IPO of Kuaishou, which minted founders Su Hua, 39, and Chen Yixiao, 36, US$24bn and US19.5bn respectively. Chen Rui, 43, of video sharing platform Bilibili, saw his wealth up six-fold to US$7.2bn. These higher than expected valuations have driven up the valuation of market leader ByteDance to US$400bn.

·       Vaping has become a big business in China. Chen Zhiping, 45, of personal vaporizer product maker Smoore shot straight into the world’s Top 100 with a US$19.5bn fortune, and Kate Wang Ying, 39, of vaping brand RELX shot straight in with US$11bn, becoming the most successful self-made female entrepreneur under 40 in the world.

·       34yr-old husband and wife team Wang Ning and Yang Tao of toy retailer Pop Mart jumped straight into the Top 500 with US$8bn. Pop Mart sells figurines for about US$8 each in packaging that doesn’t allow buyers to see what’s inside, so-called ‘blind boxes’.

·       Chen Jianhua, 51, and Fan Hongwei, 54, of Suzhou-based Hengli, which makes textile fibers for the apparel industry, have seen their wealth up US$25bn to US$40bn and a Top 10 place in China, on the back of a consolidation of their industry.

·       Restaurants, hotels and even airlines have had a strong year. Zhang Yong, 50, and Shu Ping, 51, of hotpot restaurant chain Haidilao saw their wealth up US$22bn to US$38bn. Ji Qi, of budget hotel chain Home Inn was up 50% to US$4.6bn, and Wang Zhenghua, 77, of budget airline Spring Airlines, was up 58% to US$1.9bn.

·       Zuo Hui, 50, of property finding platform KE added US$18bn to US$21bn, one of the fastest risers in the world.

·       Vaccine, medical equipment and PPE makers have had a strong year. Jiang Rensheng, 68, of vaccine biotech Zhifei Biological tripled to US$26bn. Li Xiting, 70, and Xu Hang, 59, of medical equipment maker Mindray saw their wealth double to US$23bn each. Li Jianquan, 64, of PPE maker Winner broke into the list with US$8.1bn.

·       Huang Jinfeng, 38, of Yatsen, better known as the founder of cosmetics start-up Perfect Diary, broke into the list with US$3.7bn. Perfect Diary has been one of the hottest stocks of the year in China.

·       Pig farmers Qin Yinglin and Qian Ying of Muyuan saw their wealth rocket up by US$22bn to US$41bn, cementing their place in the China Top 10. Their wealth is up US$35bn in two years.

·       With the stock markets this hot, stock brokers have had a good year. Qi Shi, 51, of online broker Eastmoney saw his wealth more than triple to US$12.5bn.

·       Robot vacuum cleaners have had a good year. Qian Dongqi, 63, of Ecovacs was up five-fold to US$7.2bn, whilst Chang Jing, 39, of Roborock Technology broke into the list with US$2.8bn.

·       Chen Bang, 56, of eye clinic Aier Ophthalmology saw his wealth triple to US$26bn.

·       Husband and wife couple Sun Piaoyang and Zhong Huijuan saw their combined wealth up US$15bn to US$43bn on the back of a boom in leading healthcare companies. In the last two years, their wealth is up US$32bn.

·       Yu Renrong, 55, of Will Semiconductors continued to see his wealth shoot up, doubling to US$14bn, which means his wealth is up 12 times in two years. In the past year, Yu pledged to donate US$3bn to build a university in his hometown.

·       Tech stars. Beijing-based Xiaomi founder Lei Jun, 52, more than doubled to US$31bn and a Top 50 place in the world; Beijing-based Li Yongxin, 45, of civil service test prep platform Offcn, saw his wealth more than double to US$22bn and a Top 100 place in the world, as well as becoming the world’s richest education entrepreneur; Liu Qiangdong, 48, of JD and Robin Li, 52, of Baidu, both saw their wealth more than double too, to bring them into the Top 100 in the world; Ren Zhengfei, 77, of Huawei, was one of the few to see his wealth drop in China, down 3% to US$2.9bn.

·       Huang Guangyu, 52, of electronics retailer Gome was released from prison after serving 12 years. Huang’s wealth was up over 50% to US$5.3bn.

Chinese diaspora. 34.6%, up from 30.2% last year, of the world’s billionaires are of Chinese origin, significantly higher than the 20% of the world’s population that China has today. Outside of Greater China, the Chinese diaspora is based predominantly in South East Asia, led by Singapore.

China’s billionaires were split into mainland China with 910 (+241), Hong Kong 82 (+12), and Taiwan 57 (+6) billionaires. Mainland China has now added 370 in two years. 9 billionaires living in China are not of Chinese origin.

TABLE: Chinese billionaire diaspora around the world

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

The USA is second behind China with 696 billionaires, up 70. Investments remain the main source of wealth for American billionaires, with 122 billionaires, followed by Software & Services and Media & Entertainment with 90 and 83. Their combined wealth was US$4.4 trillion, equivalent to 5% of global GDP or a little more than that of Germany. New York had the highest concentration of billionaires (112), followed by San Francisco (56) and Los Angeles (28). California was the state with the most number of billionaires, 186, of which over half are from the Bay Area. The USA is the world capital for immigrant billionaires. The average age of US billionaires increased to 66, two years higher than the average age of the global list.

Interesting entrepreneurs include:

·       San Francisco-based Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, 38, was one of the fastest risers of the year, with his wealth up ten-fold to US$11.5bn, on the back of cryptocurrency platform Coinbase’s imminent IPO.

·       France-born Stéphane Bancel, 48, shot into the list with a US$4.5bn fortune, on the back of his 8.7% share in Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna.

·       Holland-born Frank Slootman, 62, of cloud platform Snowflake Inc broke into the list with a US$4.9bn fortune on the back of Snowflake’s large IPO. Three other Snowflake shareholders made the Hurun list for the first time.

·       Daniel Gilbert, 59, of US mortgage lender Rocket Companies, lived up to the name of his company as his wealth ‘rocketed’ up almost six-fold to US$41bn, to become one of the fastest risers in the world this year.

·       Eric Yuan Zheng, 51, saw his wealth continue to ‘zoom’ up four-fold to US$19bn, as video conferencing Zoom went from having 10 million meetings a day in late 2019, to over 200 million a day in 2020.

·       Bobby Murphy, 32, and Evan Spiegel, 30, of Snapchat saw their wealth more than double to US$11bn each.

·       Paris-born Pierre Omidyar, 53, of PayPal, saw his wealth almost double to US18bn. Omidyar started out with EBay, before buying PayPal in 2002 and then spinning it off in 2014.

·       Jack Dorsey, 44, of mobile payments platform Square, saw his wealth almost triple to US$15bn.  Dorsey made headlines this year for being the one, who ultimately banned Donald Trump from using Twitter, a company he founded and is the CEO of.

India rises to the 3^rd spot with 177 billionaires, 40 more than last year. With US$83bn, Mukesh Ambani, 63, of Reliance is the richest person in India. Healthcare, Consumer Goods, and Chemicals led the way, with 37, 26, and 19 billionaires each. Mumbai is by far the billionaire capital with 61, followed by New Delhi with 40. The average age was 66. There are a further 32 billionaires of Indian origin, living outside of India, led by LN Mittal of ArcelorMittal in London.

150 saw their wealth increase, of which 50 were new faces. 16 decreased and 10 dropped off. 12 stayed the same.  Notable increases include:

·       Gautam Adani & family, 58, saw his wealth almost double to US$32bn, on the back of Adani Green Energy growing to a US$20bn valuation.

·       Shiv Nadar & family, 75, saw his wealth rise to US$27bn, up US$10bn, backed by a 66% increase in the share price of the software and services giant HCL.

·       NR Narayana Murthy, 74, was up 35% to US$3.1bn. His son-in-law Rishi Sunak, 40, is the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, the most powerful person in the British government after the prime minister.

·       Pankaj Munjal & family, 58, of cycle manufacturer Hero Cycles, made to the list for the first time with US$1.2bn on the back of the surging e-bike demand in India.

·       Other notable entrants are Murli Divi & family, 69, of pharma major Divi’s Laboratories and Kumar Mangalam Birla & family, 53, of the global conglomerate Aditya Birla Group who grew 72% to US$7.4bn and 61% to US$9.2bn.

·       Notable Dropouts: Scandal hit BR Shetty lost his billionaire status for the first time. Shetty’s assets have been ordered to be globally frozen by UK Courts. Ritesh Aggarwal, 27, of hotel chain Oyo Rooms, lost his billionaire status after the impact of Covid-19. Kirshore Biyani of Future Retail, the fastest wealth creator in 2018, dropped out after over-leveraging that blew out of control due to Covid-19. Rajesh Mehta also dropped out.

Germany was 4^th with 141 billionaires. Retail led with 27 billionaires, followed by Food & Beverages with 20 and Healthcare with 18. Their combined wealth was US$587bn. The average age is 63. Munich was the preferred city to live in followed by Hamburg. 119 saw their wealth increase, of which 27 were new faces. 16 decreased and 1 dropped off. 6 stayed the same.  Notable increases include:

·       Brothers Andreas and Thomas Strungmann saw their wealth double to US$10bn each, on the back of BioNTech’s deployment of a Covid-19 vaccine, in association with Pfizer.

·       Berlin-based Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, 58, broke into the list for the first time with US$2bn, on the back of a gift of a 15% company stake from Friede Springer, 78.

·       Peter Alexander Wacker, 69, & family, of chemical giant Wacker Chemie, saw his wealth increase by 82% to US$5.1bn.

·       The three Munich-based Samwer brothers saw their wealth up 30% to US$1.3bn each, on the back of the e-commerce platform Rocket Internet.

The UK remains 5^th with 134 billionaires, despite adding 15 billionaires. Real Estate and Retail led the way with 26 and 20 billionaires. UK billionaires have a combined wealth of US$484bn. The UK is second for immigrant billionaires, after the USA. London was the undisputed city of choice for 82 of them.

67 saw their wealth increase, of which 22 were new faces. 25 saw their wealth decrease and 4 dropped off. Notable increases include:

·       The UK’s biggest individual taxpayer, Denise Coates, 53, of online gambling platform Bet365, was the fastest riser, with her wealth doubling to US$10.5bn.

·       Backed by the IPO of Warner Music Group, Ukraine-born Leonard Blavatnik, 63, saw his wealth almost double to US$32bn to take the title of richest person in the UK from the Hinduja brothers.

·       Switzerland-born Guillaume Pousaz, 39, of payments platform Checkout.com, made the list for the first time with US$10bn.

·       Russia-born Denis Sverdlov, 42, of e-bus manufacturer Arrival debuts the list with a wealth of US$5.2bn.

·       David McMurtry, 80, of engineering company Renishaw, saw his wealth increase by 44% to US$2.3bn after Renishaw logged a 45% increase in its share price.

·       Portugal-born José Neves, 44, of ecommerce luxury platform Farfetch, made the list for the first time with US$2.9bn.

Switzerland rose above Russia to 6^th in the world with 100 billionaires, up by 12. Geneva was the Swiss billionaire capital, with 19, followed by Zurich with 14. Preferred sectors were Healthcare (25), Investments (11) followed by Consumer Goods and Chemicals 9 with each. Their combined wealth was US$411bn, up 15%. Switzerland is the third biggest billionaire immigration country, with 56 of Swiss-based billionaires born outside of Switzerland.

Russia dropped to 7^th position with 85 billionaires, down by 6. All are self-made. The most popular sectors were Energy and Metals & Mining with 21 and 20 billionaires respectively. Moscow was home for 67 of them. Their combined wealth came to US$393bn, up 8.4%. With US$29bn Vladimir Potanin, 60, of mining giant Interros, is the richest Moscow-based billionaire.  The richest Russia-born entrepreneur is California-based Sergey Brin, 47, of Alphabet.

France rose to 8^th position with 68 billionaires, 17 more than last year. Their combined wealth was US$534bn, up 22.7%. The preferred sector was Consumer Goods and Food & Beverages and with 14 and 8 billionaires respectively. Paris is the preferred city and is home to 44 billionaires. France’s five richest individuals all made their wealth in luxury, led by Bernard Arnault of LVMH, followed by Bertrand Puech of Hermes, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of L’Oreal, Francois Pinault of Kering, and Alain Wertheimer of Chanel.

Brazil slipped to the 9^th spot with 59 billionaires, 10 less than last year. The combined wealth of the Brazilian billionaires was US$166bn, 9.8% less than last year. The preferred sectors were Financial Services and Healthcare with 15 and 9 billionaires. Sao Paulo was the preferred city for 35 of Brazil’s 59 billionaires. The richest man in Brazil is Marcel Herrmann Telles of investment firm 3G Capital with US$9.2bn.

Thailand slipped to the 10^th position with 52 billionaires. Their combined wealth was US$123bn. The preferred sector is Food & Beverages with 31 billionaires. Bangkok is the preferred city for almost all Thai billionaires.

Where is all this new wealth coming from?

New Entrants to Top 100.  There were 30 new entrants to the Top 100, led by Zhong Shanshan of YST, who shot straight into 7^th place with US$85bn. Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, inherited from husband Sheldon, who died in last year.

TABLE: Top 10 additions into the Hurun Top 100

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

Source of Wealth by Industry – Hurun Global Rich List 2021

Healthcare was the fastest riser of the year. Healthcare and Real Estate were the main source of wealth for the world’s billionaires, followed by Consumer Goods, Investments, Retail and F&B.

TABLE: Source of Wealth – Hurun Global Rich List 2021

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy

Comparison of China vs USA billionaires. 2016 was the year that China overtook the USA in terms of billionaires.

Investors have had a strong year. Tokyo-based Masayoshi Son, 63, of Softbank came back strongly, after last year’s challenges with WeWork, to grow US$17bn to US$40bn and a Top 50 place in the world. HK-based Neil Shen Nanpeng, 54, of Sequoia China had a storming year with big investments in Meituan and Pinduoduo to US$6.9bn, whilst Beijing-based Zhang Lei, 49, of Hillhouse, almost doubled to US$5.9bn on the back of strong investment returns in biotech. Both broke into the Top 500 of the world.

Crypto billionaires Season 2 - The Resurrection: After an initial rise in 2018, the crypto billionaires then faced a sharp price correction, until this year when Bitcoin surpassed US$50,000 and Coinbase’ filing for an IPO at an unconfirmed valuation of close to US$100bn. This year saw a net addition of 17 crypto billionaires, deriving their wealth from holding currency tokens, running crypto exchanges and proving tech capabilities to support the ecosystem.

Blockchain had 17 billionaires, predominantly generated by crypto exchanges, investors, and crypto miners. The cumulative wealth of blockchain billionaires was US$77bn with 11 new faces. Crypto exchanges were led by Brian Armstrong, 38, of Coinbase with US$11.5bn. Crypto investors in the list include twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss, both 39, with US$2.8bn each, and the founders of Ripple, Chris Larsen, 60, Jed McCaleb, 46, and Brad Garlinghouse, 50, with US$5.1bn, US$3.2bn and US$1.4bn respectively.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the name used by the founder of bitcoin, ought to the richest crypto entrepreneur, with an estimated US$50bn and a Top 25 place in the world, based on his one million bitcoins at a price of US$50,000 a coin.  However, since his real identity is not known nor even if he is alive, Hurun Research has left him off the list. Vitalik Buterin, 27, of Ethereum should probably also make the list but his holdings in Ethereum are not clear, so did not feature on this year’s list.

TABLE: Blockchain Billionaires

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

The Green billionaires: This year's list witnessed 24 new entrants from green industries. Billionaires from EVs more than tripled their wealth and those from renewable energy increased their wealth by 75%. China dominated the new addition in both renewable and green energy; the fastest wealth creator was Lin Bin of Nio, up ten-fold to US$10bn, although Elon Musk topped the growth chart in terms of absolute value by adding US$151bn to his wealth. US President Biden‘s election has given the sector an impetus, especially with the US likely rejoining of the Paris Accord.

IPO’s

·       China enjoyed a surge in IPOs led by Kuaishou (worth US$160bn today), KE (US$75bn), Nongfu (US$74bn), Smoore (US$48bn), RELX (US$27bn), Xpeng Motors (26bn), Li Auto (US$23bn) and Pop Mart (US$16bn).

·       Airbnb, led by Brian Chesky (Wealth US$14.5bn), listed with a market cap of more than US$100bn.

·       Snowflake doubled in value on its opening day, reaching a market cap of US$75bn.

·       Daniel Gilbert’s (Wealth US$41bn) US mortgage lender Rocket Companies, the parent company of Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage, went public in August at a valuation of US$36bn.

·       US food delivery app DoorDash listed with a US$32bn market cap in December. Founders Tony Xu (Wealth US$3.1bn), Andy Fang (Wealth US$2.8bn), and Stanley Tang (Wealth US$2.8bn) debuted the Hurun Global Rich List.

·       Palantir is listed at a market cap of US$22bn. The founder Alexander Karp’s (Wealth US$2.5bn) wealth increased by 92% post listing.

·       John Riccitiello’s (Wealth US$1.4bn) Unity Software, a company that provides technology to video game developers, listed with a US$14bn market cap.

·       Leonard Blavatnik (Wealth US$32bn) took Warner Music public with a market cap of US$13bn.

Mergers & Acquisitions 

·       Jen-Hsun Huang (Wealth US$12.5bn), 57, saw his wealth double to US$12.5bn, on the back of Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM from Softbank for US$40bn. 

·       Anthony Pratt (Wealth US$6.6bn), 60, of Visy industries bought Owens-Illinois Glassmaking for US$790mn.

·       Aon owned by Patrick Ryan (Wealth US$3.2bn), 83, and Willis Towers Watson agreed to merge operations under Aon. Following the close of the transaction, 63% of the combined company will be owned by Aon shareholders and 37% will be owned by Willis Towers Watson shareholders.

·       Marc Benioff (Wealth US$8.4bn), 56, owned Salesforce acquired Slack for US$27bn, Under the terms of the agreement, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share.

·       Masatoshi Ito (Wealth US$3.7bn) of Seven and I, 92, acquired Speedway Gas Stations for US$21bn

·       Koch Industries completed the acquisition of enterprise software company Infor for US$13bn.

·       Semiconductor manufacturer Marvell, which is owned by Dai Weili (Wealth US$1.7bn), 58, acquired Inphi, (semiconductor manufacturer) for US$10bn

·       Dutch billionaire Jitse Groen’s, 42, (Wealth US$2bn), Just Eat acquired GrubHub for US$7.3bn. Both are in the business of online food delivery.

·       Alain Bouchard (Wealth US$4.2bn) of Alimentation Couche-Tard bought Hong Kong’s convenience store company Circle K for US$360mn. 

·       Russell Weiner (Wealth US$3.6bn) sold his Rockstar Energy drink to Pepsico for US$3.8bn.

·       John Collison (Wealth US$4.3bn) of Stripe, acquired Nigerian start-up Paystack for US$200mn.

·       Hillcorp Energy bought British Petroleum’s Alaskan business for US$5.6bn.

·       Patrick Soon-Shiong (Wealth US$9.4bn) of Nant Works, bought California Hospital for US$135mn which was under bankruptcy.

Giving it Away

·       Colin Huang Zheng (Wealth US$69) of Pinduoduo gave away US$10bn to his team and charity and then handed over the role of CEO.

·       Jeff Bezos (Wealth US$189bn) committed US$10bn to combat climate change.

·       Bernard Marcus (Wealth US$6bn) of Home Depot donated a lifetime of US$2bn to philanthropy.

·       Michael Bloomberg (Wealth US$56bn), gave US$1.6bn to arts, education, public health, and other causes.

·       Xu Jiayin of Evergrande and Chen Bang of Aier each donated about US$400 million to charity in the past year.

·       Phillip Ragon (Wealth US$2.7bn) of InterSystems, donated US$200mn to a hospital for cancer research.

·       Alisher Usmanov (Wealth US$21bn) of USM, donated US$172m to fighting COVID-19 across Russia and Uzbekistan.

·       Jeffrey Skoll (Wealth US$5.4bn) of Capricon Investment, commits US$100mn for COVID-19 Response Efforts.

·       Luis Carlos Sarmiento (Wealth US$7.9bn), of Aval, donated US$20mn to Help with the Covid-19 Crisis in Colombia.

Billionaires Spending Big

·       Steve Cohen (Wealth US$11.5bn) of SAC Capital Advisors bought New York Mets for US$2.4bn.

·       Dan Friedkin (Wealth US$4.6bn) of Gulf States Toyota, bought Italian Serie A football team AS Roma for US$700mn.

·       Steve Ballmer (Wealth US$80bn) bought the Forum in Inglewood, a multi-purpose indoor arena in a US$400mn cash deal.

·       Jeff Bezos (Wealth US$189bn) bought a US$165mn mansion in California record.

·       Shahid Khan (Wealth US$8.8bn) of auto components maker Flex N Gate, sold his yacht Kismet for US$200mn.

·       Ken Griffin (Wealth US$17bn) bought a painting by American artist Basquiat for more than US$100mn and a double lot on Miami Beach’s Star Island for US$37mn.

·       Having sold all his shares in Wynn Resorts in 2018, Steve Wynn (Wealth US$3.1bn) this past year bought two Picasso paintings for US$105mn.

·       The family of Singaporean Goh Cheng Liang (Wealth US$22bn), of Nippon Paints, is said to be the buyer of a bungalow sitting on 101,550 square feet of freehold land in Garlick Avenue, Singapore at a price of about US$70mn.

·       Michael Bloomberg (Wealth US$56bn) bought a Colorado Ranch with 4600 acres for US$45mn from fellow billionaire Henry Kravis (Rank 338, Wealth US$8bn), 77, of private equity giant KKR.

·       Leonard Lauder (Wealth US$23bn) of Estee Lauder bought a palm beach estate for US$25mn.

·       Gail Miller (Wealth US$3.1bn) of Larry H. Miller Group, sold NBA franchise Utah Jazz for US$1.6bn to Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.

·       John Gandel (Wealth US$4.1bn) of Chandell, bought a Bombardier 7500 business jet for US$73mn.

·       Robert Smith (Wealth US$6.2bn) of Vista Equity Partners, bought Two North Palm Beach Homes for US$48.2mn.

·       Travis Kalanick (Wealth US$2.9bn), the former CEO of Uber, bought the Bel Air mansion for US$43mn.

·       Leslie Alexander (Wealth US$1.8bn) of Houston Rockets pocketed US$16mn for La Jolla Beach House.

·       Paul Fireman (Wealth US$1.1bn) of Fireman Capital Partners, sold his Massachusetts Mansion for US$23mn.

Trouble with the Law

·       Jay Y Lee (Wealth US$10bn) of Samsung, imprisoned for stock price manipulation and accounting fraud in connection with a 2015 merger.

·       Bulat Utemuratov (Wealth US$4bn) of Verny Capital, was under house arrest and had his asset frozen.

·       Michael Milken (Wealth US$3.9bn) of Drexel Burham Lambert, was banned from the securities industry after pleading guilty to securities fraud in 1990. Milken had been pardoned previously by President Trump.

·       San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. was pardoned by President Trump after 1998 charges relating to a bribery scandal.

·       Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth (Wealth US$2.7bn) of Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, resigned as CEO of Bangkok Airways over charges for share price manipulation.

·       Han Chang-woo (Wealth US$3.2bn), 89, of Japan-based pachinko chain Maruhan, sued the eldest of his six children for the return of a loan of US$4.5mn with interest.

·       In jail. China-based Xiao Jianhua of Tomorrow Holdings with US$3.9bn.

Political Donations

·       Issac Perlmutter (Wealth US$5.5bn) of Marvel Entertainment and wife Laura Perlmutter led donations of US$15mn to America First Action, a Super PAC dedicated to the re-election of Donald Trump.

·       Miriam Adelson (Wealth US$31bn), the wife of the late Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, gave US$35mn to three super-PACs supporting Donald Trump, which brought the couple’s spending on the 2020 election to US$215mn.

Richest Family. The Walton family of Walmart is the richest family in the world with a cumulative net worth of US$246bn, more than Elon Musk.

Companies that created most Billionaires. China-based soya sauce brand Haitian created more billionaires than any other company in the world with 14, followed by China-based Alibaba, Thailand-based conglomerate, CP Group, Cargill and Red Bull.

Deaths

32 billionaires died during the past year. The youngest was Shanghai-based Lin Qi of gaming platform Yoozoo, who was poisoned aged 39 by a former employee. The average age of death was 82, with two making it past 100. Between them, they passed down US$38bn to 6 family members.

TABLE: The billionaire obituary – Hurun Global Rich List 2021

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2021

TABLE: Billionaires by Continents

By Continent. Asia pulled away from North America and Europe, both in terms of new additions and total wealth.

Asia, with 60% of the world’s population, accounted for 45%, up from 39% last year, of the US$14.6tn total wealth of the Hurun Global Rich List and 51% of the billionaires. For new faces, Asia contributed 63%, followed by Europe with 14.5% and North America with 14.3%.

Africa has 18 billionaires, led by Aliko Dangote, 62, of Dangote Cements.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

Stock Markets and Currencies

It has been a good year for the stock markets generally. Nasdaq led the way, up 42.1%, followed by Shenzhen up 40.7%, India’s BSE Sensex up 23.4%, Japan’s Nikkei Index up 22.9%, Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index up 19.8%, MOEX Russia up 13.2%, and Hang Seng Index up 8.6%. The worst performer was the UK, which saw the FTSE100 Index down 12%. Australia’s ASX 200 was down 4%.

The US dollar depreciated 14% against the Australian Dollar, 9% against the Euro, and 7% against the Chinese Yuan, as well as 3% against both the British Pound and Singapore Dollar. Currencies that depreciated against the US dollar include Indian Rupee (down 2%), Swiss Franc (down 8%), and Russian Rouble (down 16%), as well as the Brazilian Lira (down 21%) and Argentina Peso (down 42%).

Stats

The cut-off required to break into the Top 1000 was up 17%. The cut-off to the Top 10 was at record levels, US$80bn, 162% higher than five years ago.

TABLE: Stats – Cut-off through the Years 

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021

TABLE: Stats – Number of Billionaires through the Years

Every year other than 2019 has produced a new record of billionaires in the last decade, and this year has been no exception. 2021 has produced the record number of billionaires, overtaking the previous record set two years ago, and 90% more than 2013.

In terms of the ‘nine-zero club’, those with US$10bn or more, this has tripled from 83 ten years ago to 257 this year.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021 *In 2012, Hurun Global Rich List only ranked those with US$10bn

Largest Market Capitalizations of companies founded by billionaires from the Hurun Global Rich List 2021. Microsoft overtook Amazon to become the largest company by market cap. Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance were the only non-USA companies that makes the Top 10.

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 10

Self-made degrees: Hurun Research’s bespoke measure of the degree to which billionaires are inherited or self-made. The scorecard is out of five, where 1 is inherited and not active in business, and 5 is self-made without help from parents. Hoogewerf said, “Many billionaires like to portray themselves as self-made, but have actually inherited significant wealth from their parents.”

71% are self-made and 29% are inherited. China is the world’s engine when it comes to self-made billionaires.

TABLE: Hurun Self-Made Scorecard by Country

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2021

About Shimao Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Port City

Under the guidance of the national strategy, a world-class city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is emerging. Shimao adheres to the concept of "Empowering the City" and helps the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to build a world-class new economy and new cultural Landmark.

In 2020, Shimao Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Port City, which has occupied the head of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will create a new masterpiece which sit on the Advantage of the “one-place three links” port.

Shimao Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Port City will build a city that in the bay of about 1.2 million square meters which will cover the world coastal park, international art & exhibition and cultural center, high-end hotels, luxury business, and multinational corporate headquarters as well as various business formats such as the only available port assets across the island.

The project has a transportation hub of about 10,000 square meters which can quickly connect Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao. Five luxury hotel groups has signed and settled including Conrad, Fairmont, YULUXE , YURESIDENCE and ETHOS HOTEL. It will be one of the largest landmark hotel clusters in the Greater Bay Area. At the same time, an enterprise base will be built and more than 20 foreign investment will be introduced in the future.

Within 4 months, Shimao Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Port City has created a sales record of 3.6 billion Yuan. The owners come from 6 countries, 26 provinces and cities throughout the world.

About Hurun Report Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship through Lists and Research

Hurun Report generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand last year, up 50% year on year, through putting out lists and research.

Established in 1999, Hurun Report Inc. has grown into a leading research platform based in Shanghai and Mumbai, best-known for its China and India rich lists, and with 150 employees today.

Hurun Research Institute ‘World’s Largest Rich List Provider’

These past twenty years have seen the fastest wealth-creating period in the history of the world.

Other lists Hurun puts out include the Hurun Richest Self-Made Women in the World has been highlighting for over ten years the fact that two thirds of the world’s most successful women in business herald from China, ie Chinese are completely dominant in the world of women in business. This has changed the way the world looks at Chinese women in business.

The Hurun China Philanthropy List ranks the most generous individuals in China.  With no inheritance tax, the Chinese give much more generously than many have previously understood.

Two recent lists with an impact include the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, ranking the most dynamic businesses with a valuation of US$1bn or more, and the Hurun Global 500, a ranking of the world’s most valuable non-state-controlled businesses.

Hurun India was founded in 2012.

‘World Authority on the Chinese High Net Worth Individual’

Recent research partners include financial institutions (PingAn, Bank of China, Taikang Life, Minsheng, Citic), local government (Shanghai, Changbaishan), and Global 500 multinationals (Marriott, Country Garden, Agile, Audi, Volvo).

Three breakthrough lists this past year: Hurun Good Doctors’ List, a ranking of the 9500 most respected doctors in China, broken down by region and specialty; Hurun Best International Schools List; and Hurun Creative Works Intellectual Property List, in Search of the Harry Potter of China, ranking those online novels with the most valuable IPs.

The Hurun Art List ranks the top artists alive today in China for the 12th year and has become a household name amongst artists.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Hurun Report

Porsha Pan

Tel: +86-21-50105808*601

Mobile: +86-139 1838 7446

Email: porsha.pan@hurun.net

Hurun Report Disclaimer

This report has been prepared by the Hurun Report. All the data collection and the research has been done by the Hurun Report. This report is meant for information purposes only. Reasonable care and caution have been taken in preparing this report. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources which are considered reliable. By accessing and/or using any part of the report, the user accepts this disclaimer and exclusion of liability which operates to the benefit of Hurun Report. Hurun Report does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information contained in the report and neither shall it be responsible for any errors or omissions in or for the results obtained from the use of such information. No third party whose information is referenced in this report under the credit to it assumes any liability towards the user with respect to its information. Hurun Report shall not be liable for any decisions made by the user based on this report (including those of investment or divestiture) and the user takes full responsibility for their decisions made based on this report. Hurun Report shall not be liable to any user of this report (and expressly disclaim liability) for any loss, damage of any nature, including but not limited to direct, indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, consequential losses, loss of profit, lost business and economic loss regardless of the cause or form of action and regardless of whether or not any such loss could have been foreseen.

TABLE: Top 100 - Hurun Global Rich List 2021

For the full list of 3,228 billionaires in the world, see www.hurun.net

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2021