A TOTAL of 36 billionaires in Shenzhen made it onto the 2017 China Rich List released by Forbes on April 17, including the president of the Shenzhen high-tech company Kuang-Chi, Liu Ruopeng, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

The 34-year-old entrepreneur, who graduated from Duke University and founded Kuang-Chi seven years ago, ranked 329th on the rich list with total net assets of US$1.3 billion. He is the youngest billionaire in Guangdong Province. Liu’s company specializes in developing aerospace technology and meta-materials.

In 2015, Liu’s company launched Traveler — China’s first near-space commercial platform — in New Zealand and completed commercial testing of Automatic Identification System. The successful test vaulted China’s near-space exploration technology among the highest in the world.

Another Shenzhen entrepreneur, Wang Tao, ranked 83rd on the list with total net assets of US$3.6 billion. Wang is the founder of DJI, one of the leading unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) makers in China. His company sold 400,000 drones in 2014.

Wang is the first billionaire in the global UAV industry. He is known for his frankness and outspoken style. He once told the media that “society is so stupid, and so are some famous people,” adding that he didn’t “really admire anyone in the world.”

There are 486 Chinese billionaires on the rich list this year, including 335 from the Chinese mainland, 67 from Hong Kong and 30 from Taiwan. A total of 70 billionaires from Guangdong Province made it onto the list this year. (Zhang Yang)