Colin Huang
Chinese entrepreneur; founder and largest shareholder of PDD Holdings (Pinduoduo and Temu)
| Colin Huang
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980 |
| Nationality | China |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Founder of Pinduoduo / PDD Holdings |
| Education | Zhejiang University (BS); University of Wisconsin–Madison (MS, computer science) |
Colin Huang (Huang Zheng, 黄峥; born 1980) is a Chinese entrepreneur who founded the e-commerce company Pinduoduo, now PDD Holdings, which also runs the international shopping platform Temu.[1][2] He stepped down as chief executive in July 2020 and as chairman in March 2021, giving up the ten-to-one super-voting rights on his shares. Entities linked to him remain PDD's largest shareholder, with 24.8% of its shares in March 2026.[3][2] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Colin Huang 79th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$28.68 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as E-commerce.[1][4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Colin Huang 58th, at US$36.6 billion.[5]
Early life and education
Chinese financial news site The Paper reports that Huang was born in 1980. He graduated from Zhejiang University's Chu Kochen Honors College in 2002 and took a master's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin in 2004, then joined Google.[6] Forbes adds that he interned at Microsoft in Beijing and Seattle.[1]
Career
According to The Paper, Huang left Google in 2007 to start a series of businesses. In 2015 he launched Pinhaohuo and incubated Pinduoduo within it, and the two merged in 2016.[6] Forbes lists his earlier ventures as the online games company Xinyoudi and the e-commerce site Ouku.com.[1]
Huang stepped down as chief executive on 1 July 2020, and Chen Lei took over.[3][6] In his shareholder letter of 17 March 2021 he announced that the board had approved his resignation as chairman, with Chen also taking that role. He said that the ten-to-one super-voting rights on his shares would end, that he would entrust their voting rights to the board, and that the shares would be locked up for a further three years. He wrote that he planned to work on research in food science and life sciences.[3][6]
The company renamed itself PDD Holdings in February 2023. Its Temu platform was founded in Boston in September 2022.[2] PDD's 20-F annual report for 2025 states that substantially all of its revenue comes from third-party merchants in China.[2]
PDD's 20-F annual report for 2025 lists entities affiliated with Huang as the largest shareholder, holding 1,409,744,080 Class A shares, or 24.8%, as of 18 March 2026. Tencent-affiliated entities held 13.8%. The filing says Huang's holding entities are beneficially owned through a British Virgin Islands trust, of which he is the settlor and which benefits him and his family. No Class B (super-voting) shares were outstanding.[2] The filing also names him as sole director of the general partner of the vehicle that holds the shares of the "PDD Partnership", which held a further 6.5%.[2] According to The Paper, a filing from July 2020 had shown him with 29.4% of the shares and 80.7% of the votes, and in 2020 he transferred 7.74% of PDD to the partner group.[6]
Wealth
Forbes gives e-commerce as the source of his wealth.[1][4]
Wealth history
Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 8 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2019. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.[5][1]
| Year | World's Billionaires rank | Net worth (US$ bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 94 | 13.5 |
| 2020 | 57 | 16.5 |
| 2021 | 21 | 55.3 |
| 2022 | 173 | 11.3 |
| 2023 | 45 | 30.2 |
| 2024 | 33 | 38.9 |
| 2025 | 35 | 42.3 |
| 2026 | 58 | 36.6 |
Philanthropy
Yicai reported in March 2021 that in July 2020 Huang and Pinduoduo's founding team had pledged about 2.37% of the company's shares to set up the Starry Night (繁星) charitable foundation. The paper described it as an irrevocable charitable fund run by an independent trustee. As its first major grant, the foundation agreed in March 2021 to give Zhejiang University's education foundation US$100 million over three to five years for research labs in computing, biomedicine and agri-food science.[7]
Political activity
No political offices, donations or lobbying registrations were found for Huang in the sources checked.
International and political links
This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."
Israel (investments, operations, donations, contracts, statements)
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Zionist or pro-Israel organisations and lobbying groups
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Jewish communal charities
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Gulf states
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
China
Chinese national. Founder and largest shareholder of PDD Holdings, whose revenue comes substantially from merchants in China, and a donor to Zhejiang University through the Starry Night foundation.[2][7]
Russia
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
India
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Palestinian or Arab causes
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Home government
His home government is China's (see above). No specific dealings with Chinese state bodies by Huang personally were documented in the sources checked.
Other international links
United States: studied at the University of Wisconsin and worked at Google.[6] PDD's Temu platform was founded in Boston and sells in markets including the US, Japan, Germany and the UK (company-level).[2] British Virgin Islands: his PDD shares are held through a BVI trust structure.[2]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Forbes, Forbes profile record for Colin Huang (Forbes data feed behind forbes.com/profile/colin-huang/) Forbes, live record, read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 PDD Holdings Inc., Annual report (Form 20-F) for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Colin Huang (Zheng Huang), Pinduoduo: 2021 Shareholder Letter (Exhibit 99.3 to Form 6-K) US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 17 March 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Forbes, Forbes Real-Time Billionaires data feed Forbes, live; downloaded 20 October 2026 11:51 UTC, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Forbes, Forbes World's Billionaires list data feed, annual editions 2001–2026 (one file per year at this path with the year substituted; all 26 files downloaded and read) Forbes, annual lists; downloaded 20 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 陈宇曦 (Chen Yuxi), 黄峥卸任拼多多董事长：投身基础科学研究，超级投票权失效 (Colin Huang steps down as Pinduoduo chairman: turns to basic scientific research; super-voting rights lapse) 澎湃新闻 (The Paper), 17 March 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 第一财经 (Yicai), 黄峥辞任拼多多董事长投身科技研究 与拼多多创始团队向浙大捐赠1亿美金用于前沿科技探索 (Colin Huang resigns as Pinduoduo chairman to pursue scientific research; with founding team donates US$100 million to Zhejiang University) 第一财经 (Yicai), 18 March 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.