Liang Wenfeng Becomes AI's Newest Billionaire; 36 Individuals Join Ranks via Large Models
Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng's net worth reached $36 billion, surpassing OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman to become the world's richest large model founder. According to Zhidongxi statistics, large models have created at least 36 billionaires with combined assets over $249.1 billion, spanning 17 companies including Zhipu and MiniMax from China.
Source notice: This article is compiled from public sources. Original information and copyright remain with their publishers.Zhidongxi (WeChat: zhidxcom) reported on July 14 that according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng's net worth has reached $36 billion (approximately RMB 244 billion), surpassing OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman to become the world's richest large model founder. Liang Wenfeng became a billionaire earlier through High-Flyer Quant, and the current wave of large models has further boosted his wealth. In early June, market rumors suggested DeepSeek would complete its first round of financing of about RMB 50 billion, causing his net worth to surge 115.57% from $16.7 billion to $36 billion.
According to incomplete statistics from Zhidongxi, as of today, large models have created at least 36 billionaires with net assets exceeding $1 billion, ranging from $1.3 billion to $25.5 billion, with total assets exceeding $249.1 billion (approximately RMB 1.69 trillion). These billionaires come from 17 companies worldwide, covering sectors such as large models, AI computing power, data services, AI programming, AI healthcare, AI agents, and AI search. Among them, six are Chinese, including Zhipu chairman Liu Debing ($24.1 billion), Zhipu founder Tang Jie ($5.2 billion), MiniMax founder Yan Junjie ($2.1 billion), as well as Scale AI co-founders Alexandr Wang ($3.2 billion) and Lucy Guo ($1.5 billion), and Surge AI founder Edwin Chen ($18 billion). Additionally, there are nine billionaires born after 2000, with the highest net worth being Alexandr Wang ($3.2 billion), head of Meta's super intelligence lab.
Among Chinese companies, Zhipu chairman Liu Debing ranks second only to Brockman with a net worth of $24.1 billion. Zhipu was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January, becoming the "first large model stock" in Hong Kong, with a market value of HKD 744.997 billion. MiniMax founder Yan Junjie has a net worth of $2.1 billion; the company was listed in January with a market value of HKD 72.136 billion.
Among global large model leaders, OpenAI co-founder Brockman has a net worth of $25.5 billion, and each of Anthropic's seven co-founders has $15.5 billion. Other notable billionaires include Mistral AI's three founders (each $1.8 billion), ElevenLabs' two founders (each $1.8 billion), CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator ($5.4 billion), and Palantir CEO Alexander Karp ($12.5 billion).
The wealth creation speed of large models is unprecedented, with Chinese founders now at the top of global wealth. As commercialization challenges arise, the wealth list may undergo a new reshuffle.