Top 5 Richest Malaysians In 2026

Robert Kuok is 102 years old, but he still tops Forbes’ annual list of Malaysia’s richest.

That’s the headline of Malaysia’s 2026 rich list. But the more interesting story is what happened directly below him. Two families muscled into the top three for the first time, an aluminium clan nearly doubled its wealth, and the patriarch of Hong Leong tumbled from second to fifth. The combined wealth of the top five? Over RM183 billion (US$47 billion), around a 21% increase in a single year. 

Here’s the new pecking order, and three takeaways the rest of us can learn from:

Topping the list is Robert Kuok at US$13.6 billion, followed by Press Metal’s Koon Poh Keong & siblings at US$9.7 billion, IOI’s Lee Yeow Chor & Lee Yeow Seng at US$8.5 billion, Public Bank’s Teh siblings at US$7.7 billion, and Hong Leong’s Quek Leng Chan at US$7.5 billion. Below the top five, 99 Speed Mart’s Lee Thiam Wah (#6, US$6.7 billion) and the Krishnan family (#7, US$6.5 billion) round out a tightly bunched chasing pack.

Rank	Name	Net Worth (US$)	Wealth Driver
1	Robert Kuok	$13.6B	Diversified
2	Koon Poh Keong & siblings	$9.7B	Manufacturing
3	Lee Yeow Chor & Lee Yeow Seng	$8.5B	Food & Beverage
4	Teh siblings	$7.7B	Finance & Investments
5	Quek Leng Chan	$7.5B	Diversified

1. Robert Kuok – RM53.2 billion (US$13.6 billion)

The “Sugar King” has held the top spot in Malaysia for nearly two decades, and 2026 is no different. His net worth climbed 19% over the year, helped by Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil refiner, in which he holds a major stake, riding another strong commodities cycle.

What’s striking is the diversification. The Kuok Group spans Shangri-La Hotels, Hong Kong-listed Kerry Properties, sugar refineries, shipping, and grain. The newest pivot? Data centres. His grandson Kuok Meng Wei is leading the family’s push into AI infrastructure through K2 Strategic, building out facilities in Johor’s booming data centre corridor.

Kuok started as a humble office boy. Today, he commands an empire across Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, and at 102, he’s still expanding it.

2. Tan Sri Koon Poh Keong and siblings –  RM37.9 billion (US$9.7 billion)

The biggest jump on the entire list. The five Koon brothers, Poh Keong, Poh Ming, Poh Weng, Poh Tat, and Poh Kong, saw their combined fortune surge 80% in a single year, vaulting past Quek Leng Chan into second place for the first time.

The reason is one stock. Press Metal Aluminium Holdings (KL:PMETAL), Southeast Asia’s largest integrated aluminium smelter, jumped about 73% over the year as aluminium prices climbed on demand from electric vehicles and AI data centre infrastructure.

The backstory is pure Malaysia boleh. The brothers started Press Metal in 1986 in a rented Puchong factory with US$50,000, during a Malaysian recession. Forty years on, Tan Sri Paul Koon Poh Keong holds a 34.1% stake and serves as group CEO, with his brothers running operations alongside him.

3. Lee Yeow Chor and Lee Yeow Seng – RM33.2 billion (US$8.5 billion)

The Lee brothers control IOI Group, the palm oil and property conglomerate built by their late father, Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng. They first cracked the top five in 2024. They fell to 6th place in 2025, but this year they jumped three more spots, into third place.

Yeow Chor runs the palm oil business as group managing director and CEO of IOI Corporation Bhd. Yeow Seng leads the property arm as group CEO of IOI Properties Group Bhd. Most of the wealth bump came from planned REIT listings of IOI Properties’ assets in both Malaysia and Singapore, investors are pricing in the value those listings could unlock.

4. The Teh siblings – RM30.1 billion (US$7.7 billion)

When Public Bank founder Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow passed away in December 2022, his fortune passed to his four children: Lillian, Lillyn, Diona, and William. Their combined wealth rose 30.5% in 2026 as Public Bank shares performed steadily, though they slipped one place to #4 because of the bigger gainers above them.

The family still holds about 22% of Public Bank Bhd through Consolidated Teh Holdings. Under a Bank Negara directive applied to all major bank shareholders, they’ve agreed to gradually trim that stake to 10% over five years. The Tehs keep a famously low profile, none of them sit on Public Bank’s executive line.

5. Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan – RM29.3 billion (US$7.5 billion)

The lone billionaire in the top five whose wealth went down this year, by around 23%. Hong Leong’s executive chairman dropped from #2 to #5, displaced by the surging fortunes of the Koons and the Lees.

That said, the British-trained barrister still commands a sprawling private group with interests in banking (Hong Leong Bank, Hong Leong Financial Group), property (GuocoLand), and now healthcare, Hong Leong recently joined a US$1.2 billion buyout of Ramsay Sime Darby Healthcare alongside private equity firm TPG. At 84, he is still very much in charge.

His Singaporean cousin, Kwek Leng Beng, is also a billionaire and runs the parallel Hong Leong Group across the Causeway.

Notable Mentions

Just outside the top five, two names are worth flagging because both have been climbing fast.

6. Lee Thiam Wah – RM26.2 billion(US$6.7 billion)

The most quietly remarkable story on the entire list. Lee Thiam Wah built 99 Speed Mart from a single sundry shop in Klang in 1987 into Malaysia’s largest mini-market chain, with more than 2,800 outlets nationwide. The company’s September 2024 IPO on Bursa Malaysia, one of the country’s biggest in years, turned a paper fortune into a real one almost overnight, and the share price has continued to grind higher. Lee, who has used a wheelchair since childhood polio, owns roughly 75% of the company. There is no inherited empire here, no commodity tailwind, just three decades of opening one more store, then another.

7. The Krishnan family – RM25.4 billion (US$6.5 billion)

Following the death of telecoms tycoon Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan in late 2024, the family’s wealth, spread across Maxis, Astro, Bumi Armada, and Usaha Tegas’s private holdings, is now tracked collectively. Like the Tehs, the Krishnans operate at very low public profile, with day-to-day group oversight handled by long-time lieutenants. The portfolio is concentrated in mature, cash-generative Malaysian businesses, exactly the profile that tends to compound quietly across generations.

Three Patterns Worth Noticing Across The Top Five

You’re not building a palm oil empire. But three threads show up across the top five that are worth understanding, not as recommendations, but as patterns in how long-running Malaysian fortunes tend to compound.

Pattern 1: Diversified, low-cost equity exposure. The Koon brothers built their wealth on a single Bursa-listed company, and their net worth swings with that single stock. Most ordinary Malaysians don’t have the appetite for that level of concentration. For scale, a fund like the FBMKLCI-EA ETF tracks Malaysia’s top 30 stocks, Public Bank, Maybank, IOI Corp, Hong Leong, Press Metal among them, for around 0.5% in annual fees. The math: RM300 a month at a long-run 6% return would compound to roughly RM295,000 over 30 years. Past returns aren’t a promise of future ones, this is just the math of compounding.

Pattern 2: Long-dated, broadly diversified Malaysian funds. Many top-five fortunes ride commodity cycles, palm oil, sugar, aluminium. For Malaysians without direct stakes in those industries, vehicles like ASB and ASNB Variable funds offer broad exposure to government-linked Malaysian companies, often with capital protection. Historic returns have hovered around 5% per year. To put that in scale: RM200 a month for 25 years at that rate compounds to roughly RM118,000.

Pattern 3: Dividends do the heavy lifting when they’re not spent. A big part of why the Teh family’s wealth has stayed in the top five for two decades is Public Bank’s steady dividend record, and the choice to keep that money invested. As a worked example: on a RM50,000 dividend stock portfolio at an 8% total return, reinvesting dividends compounds to roughly RM140,000 more over 25 years than cashing them out. Most unit trusts have a “reinvest distribution” option at sign-up; some Bursa-listed companies run dividend reinvestment plans for shareholders.