China surpassed the US to become the world’s billionaire capital, an annual report released Thursday showed.
Wealth was “created faster last year than at any point” in the list’s history, Hurun Group’s chairman told the South China Morning Post, largely owing to the global AI boom: Leading Chinese AI firms Zhipu and MiniMax minted two new billionaires. MiniMax’s first post-IPO results this week showed it doubling its revenue, and its models are “helping fuel a new wave of technological nationalism,” Bloomberg wrote.
China’s new tech elite is expected to keep a low profile, however, given prohibitions on public displays of wealth, and the omnipresent threat of US sanctions. “The goal is not to get caught,” one Beijing-based adviser said.