China’s mysterious new billionaires are conquering the world
"Early last year, when DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial-intelligence lab, was causing panic among its Western rivals, almost nothing was known about Liang Wenfeng, its founder. Mr Liang remains a mysterious figure, but at least one thing is clear. As DeepSeek closes a funding round valuing it at $71bn, its founder’s personal wealth has soared to roughly $38bn—making him far wealthier than Anthropic’s Dario Amodei or Openai’s Sam Altman.
Mr Liang will not be spotted on the conference circuit. He has never appeared live on Chinese television, and there are few photos or taped footage of his unpolished, wiry figure. That puts him at home among the new generation of young Chinese billionaires. The country is cranking out more of them than anywhere else bar America. According to Hurun, which tracks the riches of the world’s wealthiest people, there were at least 29 self-made billionaires aged 40 or under in China this year. Including Mr Liang, who will turn 41 at some point this year, brings the total to 30. That is nine more than last year.
China’s new tycoons differ from their predecessors in striking ways. They have abandoned real-estate speculation and boozy dinners with officials. But they are also adept at taking imaginative ideas and scaling them into global businesses faster than any before them.
The history of China’s uber-rich is short. In the 1980s tycoons figured out how to wrest assets from the state. Zhang Ruimin, a member of a troupe of students who terrorised teachers and intellectuals during Mao’s era, got hold of a state-owned refrigerator business called Haier and turned it into what is now the world’s largest home-appliance maker. The opening of the property market in the 1990s minted another early group of billionaires including Xu Jiayin, founder of Evergrande, a now-collapsed property developer.
In the early 2000s industrialists such as Wang Chuanfu of BYD, originally a battery maker, launched a wave of manufacturing firms as China entered the WTO. And then in the 2010s the consumer internet produced China’s first generation of tech moguls, including Jack Ma of Alibaba, an e-commerce giant, and Pony Ma of Tencent, maker of of WeChat. The founders of ByteDance, creator of TikTok, and Shein, the online fast-fashion firm, who are both now in their early 40s, built their fortunes a few years later.
These people live with the sense that their businesses could be derailed at any time by sudden policy changes in China or America. By shunning publicity they seem to believe they can survive longer, he says. Most young Chinese billionaires have never spoken with foreign media. Many avoid the Chinese press as well. The result is a generation of tycoons that is both China’s most global—and its most enigmatic."
Practically everything. My phone, garbage, insurance, food, gas, electric, internet, cable . . . everything went up seemingly at the same time. There are a lot of products and businesses I just outright boycott based upon GOP reasons. I pretty much eliminate grocery stores in the summer and buy from local farms. I partition my trash into small bags and deposit them in trash cans and eliminated my garbage pick up. I compost all scraps. Started a vegetable garden. Grow my own cannabis. Switched to USMobile for $10 a month unlimited. Torrent everything. Cut cable. I used to eat out about three times a week and that is now zero. Overall, I am eating better and even lost about 15 pounds. I discovered bin stores. I find myself buying more stuff that I don't need but want. I found a $500 Garmin watch on dollar day. The only wrong with it was it was missing the band so I found one that fit and got that for a buck. On $3 day last week I found a pair of ar6 walkie talkies sealed. On $12 day I found a 32" TV and leaf blower, both sealed. I can't see myself ever paying full price again, shopping in a store or even online.