appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Fan Chen

Semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) remained the dominant sectors in Hurun’s latest ranking of China’s 500 most valuable private companies, while the consumer goods industry suffered a notable decline in 2024.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) topped the consultant’s 2024 list – which covers mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau – for the fourth year. The chipmaker’s market value increased 88 per cent from a year earlier to US$965 billion as of November 15, according to the ranking, released on Tuesday.
Tencent Holdings ranked second, as its value increased 20 per cent to US$473 billion. ByteDance overtook Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post, for third place, as its value rose 16.4 per cent to US$225 billion.
“This year, industries on the up were industrial products, semiconductors and software services, reflecting advances in smart manufacturing and the digital economy,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s chairman and chief researcher. Consumer goods and healthcare, particularly medical services, plunged, he added.
The number of consumer goods companies in the list fell by seven, while the population of healthcare companies shrank by 12.
“[That reflects] the challenges of intensified market competition, industry restructuring and changes in the external environment,” Hoogewerf said.
Among notable moves, bottled water company Nongfu Spring dropped by eight places to the 22nd spot on the list, as its market value fell 33.5 per cent.
The company suffered a decline in sales after its CEO lashed out at e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, which has more than 900 million users, for adopting low-price strategies.

World-leading battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology, known as CATL, ranked fifth with a 44.3 per cent increase in market value to US$162 billion. Pinduoduo operator PDD Holdings landed in sixth position, with delivery platform Meituan, Ping An Insurance, electric-car maker BYD and smartphone and technology company Huawei rounding out the top 10.
The industrial products sector boasts the highest representation in the ranking, with a total of 69 companies led by Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn. The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and Apple’s biggest iPhone assembler ranked 12th with a 100.3 per cent value increase to US$87.3 billion.
The property sector dropped out of the top 10, in stark contrast to its strong position just five years ago.
“The number of Hurun China 500 [property] companies has decreased from 67 to just 19, mainly Hong Kong-based estate-management companies,” Hoogewerf said.
Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group, the debt-ridden property developer, fell out of the 500 list amid its liquidity struggles over the past two years.
Companies in the renewable energy business, especially makers of solar equipment and batteries, had a tough year as well, with over half of them losing value, the list showed, amid overcapacity and a price war.
Financial services and entertainment companies have also lost value since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the most valuable companies in the list have surprisingly low sales figures and employee counts.
An example is AI chipmaker Cambricon, which forecast 2024 revenue of 1.2 billion yuan (US$165 million) in January, but is valued at US$26 billion, according to the list.
The emergence of DeepSeek this year has sparked a rally among AI and technology stocks. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have lifted their targets for key Chinese stock indices this year, saying faster adoption of AI could spur economic growth and corporate earnings.
The Hangzhou-based company’s large language models (LLMs) have been rapidly adopted after they became the subject of national pride following their launch last month. DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 offer similar performance to leading proprietary traditional and reasoning LLMs but were trained at a fraction of the cost.


China’s AI-led transformation is taking shape. Why are some economists urging caution?

China’s humanoid robot IPO slowdown no threat to firms with ‘genuine strength’: Deloitte

Investors pivot to selective China bets in technology as property growth fades: DBS Bank

1,700% share surge for Chinese state-owned compressor maker exposes risks of new listings

China stock market

Consumer firms plunge in value as AI, chips ascend Hurun’s China 500 ranking

Visitors watch a screen showing silicon wafers at a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company museum at the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 5, 2023. Photo: AFP

TikTok and Douyin owner ByteDance overtook Alibaba on the Hurun China 500 list for 2024. Photo: AFP

DeepSeek’s AI models drive surging orders for Nvidia H20 chips in China, sources say

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. Photo: AFP

DeepSeek has made global headlines since the launch of its latest models. Photo: AP

Chinese tech firms flock to Hong Kong for IPOs amid DeepSeek-triggered AI boom

More Chinese tech firms could tap Hong Kong’s IPO market amid a shift in the market’s perception on AI development on the mainland and regulatory support. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Chinese tech firm AICT aims to raise around US$200 million via a Hong Kong IPO, sources say. Photo: Handout

Alibaba investors hail e-commerce giant’s AI pivot as it plots major investment outlay

Alibaba’s artificial intelligence investment strategy is expected to boost the company’s efforts to become a major player in this field. Photo: Shutterstock

Recent accomplishments by Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing services and artificial intelligence arm, Alibaba Cloud, are stealing some of the thunder from Chinese AI darling DeepSeek. Photo: Shutterstock

Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen family of open-source AI models have led to the creation of more than 90,000 models on Hugging Face, the collaborative machine-learning platform and community, according to the company’s latest data. Photo: Shutterstock

Alibaba previews new AI reasoning model to challenge DeepSeek R1, OpenAI o1

Alibaba has released a preview of its next AI reasoning model. Photo: AFP

China’s DeepSeek-led AI revolution could boost financial sector profit by up to 13%: UBS

AI-related advances brought about by DeepSeek’s technology could boost the financial sector’s profit, according to UBS. Photo: AFP

UBS is bullish on the prospects of Chinese  brokerage and insurance stocks. Photo: Reuters

Business

China Business

Companies

Markets

News

China

Technology firms dominate the list of China’s 500 most valuable private companies, as consumer-goods and healthcare providers drop


Technology firms dominate the list of China’s 500 most valuable private companies, as consumer-goods and healthcare providers drop.


Consumer firms plunge in value as AI, chips ascend Hurun’s China 500 ranking

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Technology firms dominate the list of China’s 500 most valuable private companies, as consumer-goods and healthcare providers drop

Technology firms dominate the list of China’s 500 most valuable private companies, as consumer-goods and healthcare providers drop