Mumbai becomes Asian capital with most billionaires, bumping Shanghai: Report

The city of Mumbai has officially surpassed Shanghai as Asia’s capital with the most billionaires, according to a new Hurun Global Rich List 2024 report. 

Mumbai, India’s financial powerhouse, now has 92 billionaires, closely edging out Beijing’s 91 and Shanghai with 87. 

This year’s list marked Mumbai’s first time in the world’s top three, according to the report. 

Globally, the Big Apple still leads the way. New York City has the most billionaires with 119. London was second with 97. Beijing, which was ranked first last year, dropped to fourth place. 

China has the most billionaires out of any country with 814, although it lost 155 of them. The U.S. was second with 800 billionaires. India was third with 271. 

“Wealth creation in China has gone through deep changes these last few years, with the wealth of billionaires from real estate and renewables down,” the research firm said in the report. 

“Whilst as many as 40% of the Hurun Global Rich List from the high water mark two years ago have lost their billionaires status, China has added a 120 new faces to the list. Despite the large drop in the number of billionaires, China still has more known billionaires than the US.”

Zhong Shanshan, chair of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring, kept his spot as the richest person in China. 

Globally, the number of billionaires increased — now at 3,279 billionaires, up 167 from last year, according to the report. 

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has helped generate new ultra-wealthy individuals. 

“AI has been the major driver for wealth growth, generating over half of all the new wealth this year,” the research firm said. “The billionaires behind Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle and Meta have seen significant surges in their wealth as investors bet on the value generated by AI.”