“This is a man-made scarcity,” said Zhang Lu, securities analyst at Capital Securities Corp. in Shanghai, pointing to the surge in share prices.

The net worth of Zhou Yahui, the chairman of Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., reached $1.7 billion after the Internet video game developer quadrupled following its offering, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Sun Qinghuan, became a billionaire today when MLS Co., China’s biggest maker of LED products, started trading. The stock surged by the 44 percent limit in Shenzhen, giving him a net worth of $1.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. MLS joins about a dozen companies that began trading this week, with the stocks rising by the trading debut limit.

Ma Hong, chairman of Dongguan Souyute Fashion Co., a casual-wear apparel maker, became a billionaire on Feb. 10 -- one month after a report said his net worth had crossed the mark. His fortune, which also includes stock held by a company the 47-year-old owns with his wife, increased after he reduced the number of shares he had pledged as collateral.

Alibaba, Alipay

Other entrepreneurs have fortunes approaching $1 billion. Zhou Guohui, the 50-year-old chairman of Eternal Asia Supply Chain Management Ltd., which runs a logistics and data- processing company, has a fortune valued at $953 million including cash holdings of about $150 million, after deducting shares pledged as collateral.

No company produced more billionaires than the finance affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co., the parent of electronic payment operator Alipay, doubled its valuation to about $50 billion last month ahead of a private placement and an anticipated IPO, according to people familiar with the matter.

The higher valuation created 13 billionaires, including Alibaba’s Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Lu and Chief People Officer Lucy Peng, as well as the mother of founder Jack Ma’s private-equity fund partner, Wang Yulian.

Ma, 50, has added $6.7 billion to his $35.1 billion fortune this year, according to the Bloomberg index, making him Asia’s wealthiest person. As a group, China’s 25 richest people are up $21.3 billion for the year.

Further Gains