The ranking of global billionaires! New York ranks first and Hong Kong ranks second.

There are 106 people from Hong Kong, China on the list of individuals with a net worth of over 1 billion US dollars, ranking second in the world, only after New York, the United States.

Which cities around the world are home to billionaires?

New York in the United States ranks first, and Hong Kong, China ranks second!

According to the latest report recently released by wealth intelligence firm Altrata, the total number of billionaires worldwide reached 3795 in 2025, hitting an all-time high.

What is the entry threshold for this list? A minimum net asset value of 1 billion US dollars.

In 2025, the top 10 cities with the largest number of billionaires in the world are as follows:

New York (164 people), Hong Kong (106 people), San Francisco (99 people), London (79 people), Singapore (75 people), Los Angeles (73 people), Beijing (61 people), Dubai (43 people), Shenzhen (43 people), Chicago (42 people).

Hong Kong's ranking is quite impressive.

However, another list presents different data.

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2026, the top 5 cities with the largest number of super-rich people in China are as follows: Shenzhen (132 people), Shanghai (120 people), Beijing (107 people), Hong Kong (88 people), Hangzhou (65 people).

In this ranking, Hong Kong only ranks fourth in China.

Why is there such a big gap between the two lists? The reason is that the statistical calibers of the two lists are different.

Altrata counts the total number of "billionaires" whose assets meet the standards across the globe, focusing more on the place of residence of the rich, while fully taking into account the appeal of Hong Kong as an international financial center — it can gather wealthy people from all over the world, especially from China and India, so Hong Kong's ranking is naturally high.

While the Hurun list pays more attention to the group of "super-rich people", its statistics may be more biased towards the location of the enterprise headquarters or the main source of wealth. As a result, Shenzhen and Shanghai, with a high concentration of local technology enterprises and manufacturing giants, have outstanding wealth creation capabilities, and the number of rich people has surpassed that of Hong Kong.

In short: Altrata counts "which place has more rich people living there", and Hong Kong, as an international gateway, has first-class capital attraction capacity; Hurun counts "which place creates more rich people", and the first-tier cities in the Chinese mainland have rapid industrial upgrading, so they naturally produce a large number of rich people themselves.

Although the two lists have different focuses, Hong Kong's status as a globally important wealth management center has not been shaken.

Hong Kong is one of the three major global financial centers, with a highly mature private banking and wealth management system, and is closely connected to regional and global wealth networks, making it an ideal foothold for internationally active entrepreneurs.

Last year, Hong Kong recorded a total of 120 IPOs, raising 39.5 billion US dollars, ranking first in the world; by the beginning of August this year, the IPO fundraising amount had reached 41 billion US dollars, exceeding the total of last year, and it is expected to hit a new high again.

According to the report from CLSA, Hong Kong is already the world's largest cross-border wealth management center, and these hard strengths are the real confidence beyond the list data.

Looking at the recent economic performance, Hong Kong's growth momentum is also remarkable.

On August 14, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government released data showing that Hong Kong's real GDP in the first half of 2026 increased by 5.1% year-on-year, marking the strongest semi-annual performance in nearly five years.

During the same period, in the first half of 2026, the growth rate of Guangdong Province was 4.5%, and that of the Chinese mainland was 4.7%. That is to say, in the first half of this year, the GDP growth rate of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region rarely exceeded that of Guangdong Province, and also exceeded that of the Chinese mainland.

Behind this growth rate, the trade dividend brought by the artificial intelligence wave has played an indispensable role.

In the second quarter of this year, Hong Kong's merchandise exports recorded a real year-on-year increase of up to 28.9%, and the figure in the first quarter also rose by 23.8%, with AI-related products being the biggest driving force.

Although Hong Kong does not have NVIDIA, nor is it a chip manufacturing base, as a globally important hub for electronics trade and re-export, a large number of chips, server components and electronic products manufactured in the mainland are shipped to all over the world via Hong Kong.

The economic adviser of the Hong Kong SAR Government revealed that about one third of the mainland's integrated circuit exports are transshipped via Hong Kong; at present, AI-related products account for about 70% of Hong Kong's export commodities, with the value of goods increasing by 41.5% in the first quarter and surging to 63.7% in the second quarter.

In this wave of the AI industry boom, Hong Kong has indeed reaped substantial benefits.

This article is from the WeChat official account "City War", author: Yu Xiao, published with authorization from 36Kr.