"2026 Hurun Rich List" Released: Total Wealth 32 Trillion Yuan, AI and Embodied Intelligence Become the Main Wealth-Creation Themes

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On October 27, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2026 Hurun Rich List." In 2026, a total of 1,529 entrepreneurs with personal wealth of more than 5 billion yuan made the list, an increase of 95 over last year. The total wealth of the listed entrepreneurs was 32 trillion yuan, up 7% year on year. The wealth of 785 entrepreneurs increased compared with last year, including 263 newcomers; the wealth of 911 entrepreneurs shrank or remained unchanged, of whom 167 fell off the list.

The reporter of China Business Journal noted that more than 260 entrepreneurs newly made the list in 2026. The top newcomer is a 41-year-old AI entrepreneur — DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, who directly entered the top ten with wealth of 280 billion yuan. At the same time, AI has become the largest single wealth-growth engine on the list: there are more than 160 listed entrepreneurs in total, accounting for more than 10%.

"Embodied intelligence — AI with a physical carrier — entered the stage of large-scale commercial application this year, and this list intuitively confirms this trend," Hurun, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Group, told the reporter. At present, nearly 80 listed entrepreneurs have wealth from the robotics sector. The biggest highlight of this year's robotics sector is undoubtedly 36-year-old Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics' humanoid robots, who made the list for the first time this year with wealth of 69.5 billion yuan and is the second-largest newly listed entrepreneur. Unitree Robotics completed its listing in August, and on the first day of listing the company's market value once surged to 440 billion yuan, while Wang Xingxing's personal wealth once exceeded 130 billion yuan.

Hurun said that other noteworthy newcomers in the embodied intelligence field include: Deng Taihua of AgiBot, Guo Yandong of AI² Robotics, Zhou Yong of Linker Hand, and 34-year-old Gao Jiyang of Galaxea. Qian Dongqi of Ecovacs and Zhou Jian of UBTECH represent mature leading entrepreneurs in the sector. "When the robotics era fully arrives, I believe China will continue to maintain its leading position in this sector."

In the commercial space sector, three rocket founders made the list for the first time: 43-year-old Zhang Changwu of LandSpace, whose Zhuque-3 reusable rocket attracted global attention this summer; Kang Yonglai of Space Pioneer and Yang Yiqiang of CAS Space also made the list.

"It is expected that in the next few years, the wealth of these entrepreneurs will still grow substantially. The brain-computer interface and quantum computing sectors have not yet produced billion-dollar entrepreneurs; give this field another five years and changes will be seen," Hurun concluded.

(Source: China Business Journal) Middle of the article Embedded advertisement