In the modern world economy, the position of any country in the world highly depends on the quality of its business elite. The author offers a comprehensive comparative analysis of business elites of 16 leading Asian countries, including Russia. They are compared with the entrepreneurial elite of the main Western countries. The author uses the ratings of billionaires and other statistical studies of people with a high level of wealth as an empirical basis for identifying the main characteristics of large entrepreneurs in Asian countries. The quantity, size of wealth, age and gender, territorial concentration, global mobility, industry specialization as well as oligarchy of business elites in Asia are considered. Billionaires of Asian countries are also considered in terms of how their entrepreneurial careers were made by their own efforts, i.e. self-made quality. The author comes to the conclusion that China’s business elite is characterized by the rapid growth of its ranks and its aggregate wealth, relative youth, uniform dispersal across the country, a significant level of orientation toward industrial and technological development, a high level of self-made quality and, consequently, high personal quality. The business elite of Russia is characterized by relative youth, superconcentration in Moscow, raw materials orientation, high level of self-made and personal qualities. The business elites of most Asian countries are characterized by a dominant masculinity and clearly pronounced tendencies of oligarchy. That fact differs them from their counterparts from Western countries. All Asian business elites are increasingly integrated into the global capitalist class.