40 years old and the huge fortune of the owner of "Chinese Nvidia"

VTV.vn - The fortune of the founder of "China's Nvidia" Chen Tianshi tripled in 2025.

According to Forbes, one of the fastest-growing rich people in 2025 is Chen Tianshi. The 40-year-old billionaire's fortune nearly tripled to more than $21 billion thanks to a sharp rise in shares of AI chip maker Cambricon Technologies, which Chen founded.

The new ranking released by Forbes shows that the 41-year-old billionaire ranks 15th on the list of China's richest people.

Cambricon is often referred to as the “Nvidia of China,” with customers spanning sectors such as banking and telecommunications. Its chips have enough processing power to train and run artificial intelligence models, including those developed by Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Tencent , as China pushes to develop its own AI solutions in the face of US restrictions on the export of advanced chips.

Chen Tianshi at a technology forum (Photo: Forbes)

In the first half of 2025 , Cambricon recorded its first half-year profit since listing in 2020, reaching 1 billion yuan ($140 million) . Revenue in the same period increased more than 4,300% year-on-year to 2.9 billion yuan. According to Forbes, this is a rare leap in the Chinese semiconductor industry.

Chen Tianshi, 40, is currently Chairman and CEO of Cambricon Technologies .

He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology of China, one of China's cradles of talent. The tech billionaire worked at the Institute of Computer Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences before founding Cambricon in 2016 with his brother Chen Yunji (42).

The brothers were both born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. According to SCMP, the elder brother, Chen Yunji, specializes in high-performance computing, while Chen Tianshi focuses on chip architecture and hardware design. Thanks to their complementary expertise, the brothers quickly attracted the attention of the government and investors, especially after Cambricon's first chip was used in a Huawei phone in 2017.

Brothers Chen Yunji and Chen Tianshi (Photo: SCMP)

The Chen brothers' story is often cited as a symbol of “China's Silicon Valley” - a generation of young scientists leaving research institutes to found strategic technology businesses, contributing to Beijing's ambition to reduce its dependence on US chips.

Chinese billionaires' assets soar

China’s stock market is in a strong growth phase, fueled by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom and expectations of new government stimulus measures to counter slowing growth and trade tensions with the US. The CSI 300 index, a key gauge of the market, has risen 15% year-on-year, pushing the combined wealth of China’s 100 richest people to $1.35 trillion, up from $1.03 trillion a year earlier.

According to Forbes, about two-thirds of this year's list of China's 100 richest people saw their fortunes increase. Zhong Shanshan, founder of Nongfu Spring, retained the No. 1 spot for the fifth consecutive year. His fortune increased by $26.3 billion to $77.1 billion, thanks to double-digit increases in revenue and profit for the first half of 2025 at the beverage group.

Bottled water billionaire Zhong Shanshan (Photo: Forbes)

ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming rose to second place after adding $23.7 billion to his net worth, bringing his net worth to $69.3 billion. The tech billionaire’s rise was aided by a major legal coup: TikTok avoided a potential ban in the US after President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing a new joint venture with a US investor to take a controlling stake and continue operating the platform.

Despite his fortune increasing by more than a third to $62.8 billion, Ma Huateng (Pony Ma), chairman of Tencent Holdings, fell to third place. Tencent shares have risen more than 40% over the past year thanks to strong online gaming and advertising revenue on its super app Weixin (WeChat), while the company has also stepped up investment in AI.

In terms of percentage increase, Wang Ning, founder of Pop Mart International Group, was the fastest-growing person in terms of wealth, with his fortune more than quadrupling to $22.2 billion, thanks to the global Labubu doll craze.

In the tech sector, Chen Tianshi, chairman and CEO of Cambricon Technologies, nearly tripled his fortune to $21 billion. The company, dubbed “China’s Nvidia,” just posted its first half-year profit since going public in 2020, hitting $140 million thanks to a surge in AI chip sales.

AI fever puts many engineers on China's billionaire list

The newest addition to this year’s list is DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, ranked 34th with $11.5 billion. The AI ​​company made headlines when it launched its low-cost AI model in January 2025, stirring up Chinese tech stocks. Also riding the wave is Zhou Chaonan, founder of Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group, a data center operator, who also made his debut at No. 85 with $5.3 billion.

Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek (Photo: Getty)

Six billionaires returned to the list after a long absence, including Qian Dongqi, founder of Ecovacs Robotics, a maker of robot vacuum cleaners. Ecovacs’s first-half 2025 profit jumped more than 60% to $138 million thanks to strong sales of home appliances.

In contrast, Wang Xing, chairman and CEO of Meituan, recorded the sharpest decline in wealth – down $6.2 billion, equivalent to more than 42%, to $8.4 billion, as a fierce price war with Alibaba and JD.com reduced profits in its food delivery segment.

Meanwhile, Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, once China's richest man, dropped off the list as the real estate group had to sell assets to deal with a liquidity crisis. The minimum asset threshold to be included in the Top 100 this year increased to $4.6 billion, compared to $3.9 billion last year.

Source: https://vtv.vn/40-tuoi-va-khoi-tai-san-kech-xu-cua-ong-chu-nvidia-trung-quoc-100251111093132394.htm