#14 Jack Ma $46.0B

The majority of Ma's wealth is derived from publicly traded Alibaba Group Holdings and its online payment service Alipay, which is owned by closely held Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group.

Ma owns 5.8 percent of Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company, according to the company's 2017 annual report and transaction filings of the company. He holds the shares directly and through holding companies, including APN, a Cayman Islands-based company in which he has a 70 percent interest.

The analysis credits him with 28.5 percent of Ant Financial. Bloomberg reporting revealed he owned 48.5 percent in September 2014, when he began reducing his interest as part of a compensation plan for executives. He's expected to reduce his interest to "no more than 8.8 percent" over the course of three-to-five years, Alibaba reported in its 2014 initial public offering prospectus. To reflect this, the analysis will reduce his interest by equal amounts every year, and last lowered it from 35.4 percent in September 2017.

Ma controls Ant Financial through two China-based holding companies, Jun Han and Jun Ao, which own 42 percent and 34 percent of Ant Financial respectively, according to Alibaba's 2016 annual report. The net worth analysis values the business at $60 billion, based on the $4.5 billion it raised from investors in a 2016 funding round, according to an April 26, 2016 Bloomberg News report. More recent reports suggest the valuation could be as high as $75 billion.

Alibaba announced on Feb. 1, 2018 that it would purchase 33 percent of Ant Financial. The dilution of Ma's ownership in Ant Financial as well as Ant Financial's valuation post deal are not reflected in the net worth analysis because the deal hasn't been completed and details aren't available.

Bob Christie, an Alibaba spokesman, declined to comment on Ma's wealth.

Jack Ma was born in September 1964 to Chinese traditional musician-storytellers living in Hangzhou, an ancient capital that’s also a global high-tech hub and bastion of entrepreneurship.

Ma taught himself English at age 12 and offered free guided tours, practicing his English with U.S. visitors and listening to Voice of America broadcasts. He applied for college, failing the entrance exam twice before enrolling at Hangzhou Teachers College. He graduated and his first job paid him $15 a month for three years.

His proficiency in English enabled him to get a part-time job in 1995 as an interpreter for Chinese and American businessmen. He encountered his first computer and the internet during a visit to a friend's house in Seattle. With the help of friends, he created a home page for his translation business the next day and received five responses.

Ma returned to China and started China Pages, a business that established websites for small businesses. He then took a government job where he met a first-time visitor to China, Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo. By 1999, Ma started Alibaba.com, a business-to-business marketplace, backed by $60,000 from 18 co-founders. Alibaba.com reached 1 million users in 2002. He decided to replicate the success with China's consumers by building Taobao.com, a retail site, followed by an online payment platform called Alipay.

To help build the business, Ma sought an internet search engine partner and was contacted by Yang. They struck a deal whereby Yahoo bought a 40 percent stake in closely held Alibaba Group for $1 billion. Friction followed as Yahoo's business was being eroded by the ascendency of Google, while Alibaba dominated China's e-commerce sphere. Ma tried and failed to buy back the stake from Yahoo, and even considered buying Yahoo outright.

The relationship soured further. In order to secure an operating license for online payments, Ma transferred Alipay from Alibaba Group to a closely held company under his control in May 2011. Yahoo said Ma's spinoff was done without the approval of Alibaba's board, which then included Jerry Yang, and diluted Yahoo's investment. Ma said Chinese regulators would balk at approving the license because foreign investors owned Alibaba. The parties settled in July 2011. After months of talks, Ma agreed in May 2012 to pay Yahoo $7.1 billion for its 20 percent stake in Alibaba, plus royalties for as long as four years.

Alipay has more than 800 million registered users. Its mobile application has 190 million active users and handles 45 million transactions a day, the company said in October 2014.

Ma stepped down as Alibaba Group CEO on May 10, 2013. He remains chairman. Alibaba's initial public offering in September 2014 was the biggest in the world. He said in the interview that he's not happy being China's richest man, and would someday return to teaching.