Everybody knows that Jack Ma is rich. But since at least October, the ecommerce giant’s fortune has been lagging behind that of Wanda Group’s Wang Jianlin (whose son is a big investor in China’s video gaming scene). Jack was China’s richest tech founder, but he was no longer China’s – or Asia’s – richest man.
But that was before Ant Financial raised its US$4.5 billion series B round earlier this week. That round bumped up Ant Financial’s valuation, and thus the value of Jack Ma’s Ant Financial shares (he owns 37.9 percent of the company). According to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, the funding round added US$4.3 billion to Jack Ma’s net worth.
His new total net worth – US$33.3 billion – pushes him back above Wang Jianlin, making him once again the richest person in Asia, and the 16th-richest person on earth.
With a net worth of US$32.7 billion, Wang Jianlin isn’t far behind, so Ma’s time at the top could be limited. Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing is the next closest Asia representative, with a fortune of US$29.5 billion.
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