Richard Li

Net Worth:
$5.99 billion
(▲34.9% from 2017)

Rich 100 rank: #12
Change in rank from 2017: ▲3
Major company holdings: PCCW
Location: Hong Kong
Age: 51

Spending $250,000 for a personalized top-level website domain based on your name may seem extravagant. But for billionaire businessman Richard Li, it’s a small price to pay to have endless websites featuring his name. The domain .richardli went live in May 2016, and whether it’s an ego trip or a brilliant branding strategy, it makes Li the first person to mark a territory of the internet in such a way.

For someone who’s always forged his own path, the move is fitting. Ka-Shing, could easily have simply waited to inherit the fortune of his father, Li Ka-Shing, Asia’s richest person, worth an estimated $31.9 billion. Instead, he built his own wealth. As a student, he worked shifts at McDonald’s and as a caddy at a golf course. Along with PCCW, he chairs Pacific Century Group, an Asia-based private investment group with interests in technology, media and financial services, among others. Li bought the asset management operations of AIG for around $500 million in 2009. Through PCCW, he also has stakes in Air Canada and BCE.

Updated Thursday, November 9, 2017