Two of China’s most well-known technology entrepreneurs, Tencent Holdings’ Chairman Pony Ma and Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma, became the first Chinese to enter Forbes magazine’s top 20 list of richest people in the world, with a combined wealth of USD84.3 billion. The 32nd Forbes annual billionaires list was still dominated by U.S. tycoons, who made up 13 out of the world’s 20 richest people. But with China creating the most new billionaires last year, 89 compared to the U.S.’ 18, the gap between the two countries is closing. While the U.S. had the most number of people with wealth in the billions, 585, Greater China – mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan – had 476.

Tencent’s online games and its WeChat messaging and online payment app helped its share price double in the last year, making Pony Ma the wealthiest man in Asia with USD45.3 billion. The Hong Kong-listed company also has stakes in Tesla, Snapchat parent Snap and music-streaming service Spotify. Alibaba’s Jack Ma, 53, with net worth of USD39 billion, ranked the third wealthiest person in Asia and the 20th worldwide, thanks to a 76% rise in Alibaba’s share price in the past year. Asia’s wealthiest woman was also from China. Property developer Country Garden Holdings’ Vice Chairwoman Yang Huiyan, 36, was the 43rd richest person worldwide. She owns 57% of Country Garden.

A record 2,208 billionaires were on the Forbes list this year, with a collective net worth of USD9.1 trillion, up from USD7.7 trillion in 2017. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, 54, was the world’s wealthiest person, with USD112 billion, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.