Alibaba’s IPO lifts Jack Ma to top of Forbes’ China Rich List for the first time

Jack Ma, the founder and chairman of eshopping empire Alibaba, now tops Forbes’ China Rich List for the first time. Today’s updated list from Forbes shows Ma’s personal wealth at US$19.5 billion – nearly three times greater than his stash last year of $7.1 billion, when he ranked eighth.

Unsurprisingly, a number of other leading tech entrepreneurs top the list. Baidu’s Robin Li is second, while Tencent’s Pony Ma is third.

Jack Ma takes over the top of the China Rich List from Wang Jianlin, who made his money in real estate with the Wanda Group. Wang’s personal fortune – prepare to shed tears, dear reader – shrank by nearly a billion in the past 12 months.

Here’s a list of the top five web and tech founders on the new China Rich List:

1st. Jack Ma – US$19.5 billion

Up from US$7.1 billion a year ago

A couple of months ago, Bloomberg pegged Ma’s fortune at US$21.8 billion, and that’s pretty much confirmed by this new data from Forbes. Ma’s moolah is of course boosted by Alibaba’s recent IPO. The ecommerce titan now has a market cap of US$240 billion.

2nd. Robin Li – US$14.7 billion

Up from US$11.1 billion a year ago

Robin Li co-founded Baidu back in 2000, and his wealth has grown slowly yet strongly since then. Baidu’s current market cap is US$80 billion.

3rd. Pony Ma – US$14.4 billion

Up from US$10.2 billion a year ago

Tencent’s Ma Huateng, like his Baidu rival, is seeing his fortune grow in line with his web empire. Tencent was China’s biggest tech company in terms of market cap (currently US$186 billion, not far off Facebook’s US$210 billion) until Alibaba’s IPO popped up.

4th. Lei Jun – US$9.1 billion

Up from US$3.85 billion a year ago. Overall 8th place.

Xiaomi’s Lei Jun is a serial entrepreneur and investor with cash in a lot of piggy banks, including recently-listed firms like Cheetah Mobile and Xunlei. Xiaomi itself has yet to list. The phone and gadget maker is on course to sell 60 million phones this year, and in the course of doing so might top Samsung as China’s top smartphone brand.

5th. Liu Qiangdong – US$7.1 billion

Up from US$1.3 billion a year ago. Overall 10th place.