Peterffy vs Zhang Yiming
Interactive Brokers and ByteDance.
The differences
- Forbes puts Thomas Peterffy about $6.3B ahead of Zhang Yiming.Forbes figures from 5 Sep 2026 and 4 Sep 2026.
- Both started the company their money comes from.
- Thomas Peterffy is about 39 years older than Zhang Yiming.
- Thomas Peterffy is from United States; Zhang Yiming is from China.
Put someone else on either side
Side by side
Peterffy
Zhang YimingThe money
- Net worth, Forbes
- $107BForbes, 5 Sep 2026
- $101BForbes, 4 Sep 2026
- Net worth, Bloomberg
- $104BBloomberg, 11 Oct 2026
- $105BBloomberg, 10 Oct 2026
- Forbes rank
- No. 20Real-Time list, 5 Sep 2026
- No. 28Real-Time list, 16 Jun 2026
- Billionaire since
- Not stated
- 2018First year on Forbes' World's Billionaires list: Forbes says he 'debuted' on it in March 2018 with $4 billion
Where it came from
- How it started
- Founded itFormed the business now known as Interactive Brokers in 1977 after buying an American Stock Exchange seat
- Co-founded itByteDance was founded in 2012 by a team led by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo; Forbes labels him self-made
- Main source
- Interactive Brokers stock, held through IBG HoldingsBloomberg: 'The majority of Thomas Peterffy's fortune is derived from Interactive Brokers Group'
- ByteDance stock (TikTok, Douyin, Toutiao)Bloomberg: 'Zhang Yiming's wealth is derived from his stake in ByteDance'
- Companies
- Interactive BrokersInteractive Brokers: Founder and chairman
- ByteDanceByteDance: Co-founder; no executive role
- Biggest stake
- Interactive Brokers67.5% owned
- ByteDance21% owned
The person
- Born
- 1944Budapest, Hungary
- 1983Yongding District, Longyan, Fujian, China
- Country
- United StatesLives in Palm Beach, Florida, United States
- ChinaLives in Singapore
- Education
- Left university without a degreeAttended the College of Surveying in Hungary; studied at New York University without finishing
- Bachelor's degreeBachelor of Engineering, Nankai University (graduated 2005)
- Parents
- Descended from Hungarian aristocrats who lost nearly everything under Soviet rule; arrived in the US in 1965 at 21 with no moneyForbes profile; parents' occupations not stated
- The only son of civil servants, raised in Longyan, Fujian province
What they give
- Giving Pledge
- Not a signer
- Not a signer
- Foundation
- Peterffy FoundationEstablished by Peterffy and run by his children; funds the Living Forest Project, Reweaving the Web and One Small Planet
- Not stated
- Lifetime giving
- Not stated
- Not stated
Role and record
- Role now
- Chair of the boardFounder and chairman of Interactive Brokers
- Founder, no executive roleCo-founder of ByteDance; left the CEO post in May 2021 and the chairmanship later that year
- Successor
- Milan Galik succeeded him as CEO in 2019His son William Peterffy, CEO of One Small Planet, is an Interactive Brokers director
- Liang Rubo, ByteDance co-founder, became CEO in 2021 and is chairman
- Public office
- None found
- None found
- Legal record
- 1980: American Stock ExchangeSettled an exchange disciplinary matter over exceeding options position limits (Rule 904) with a $500 fine, per his FINRA BrokerCheck report.
- None found
