Labubu fans have spent a fortune on the viral dolls, making the man behind the plushie phenomenon one of the world's biggest wealth gainers this year.
Shares of Chinese toymaker Pop Mart have surged more than 250% this calendar year on the back of the Labubu craze, boosting CEO Wang Ning's net worth to $27.5 billion at Tuesday's close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Thanks to his nearly 50% stake in Pop Mart, Wang is about $20 billion richer than at the start of 2025, meaning his net worth has more than tripled this year. He's outpaced Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and all but seven of the names on the rich list.
The change propelled him from 400th to 79th place on Bloomberg's leaderboard, putting him ahead of well-known billionaires such as Peter Thiel, who is worth $24.2 billion.
Pop Mart's stock has soared as demand for its products has translated into strong financial gains. First-half revenues tripled year over year to about 13.9 billion yuan, which is about $1.9 billion, fueling a five-fold increase in operating profits to about 6 billion yuan. The Monsters collection, which includes Labubu, generated about 4.8 billion yuan — more than a third of total sales.
Wang's wealth is being supercharged by toys, while others are gaining because of AI
Wang's wealth increase stands out because it stems from the toy industry, unlike other big gainers such as Oracle's Larry Ellison, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, who've supercharged their fortunes this year by tapping the AI boom.
Pop Mart went public on Hong Kong's stock exchange in December 2020, priced below $6 a share in dollar terms. Its American depositary shares, which trade on the over-the-counter market in the US, closed around $44 on Tuesday.
Pop Mart didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
