A Chinese Genius Makes $23 Billion from Artificial Intelligence!

Billionaires and Fortunes

A Chinese Genius Makes $23 Billion from Artificial Intelligence!

Just six years ago, Chen Tianshi's name wasn't prominent in the world of finance and business. Born in the Chinese city of Nanchang, he led a startup specializing in artificial intelligence chips, almost entirely dependent on the telecommunications giant Huawei, which accounted for more than 95% of its revenue. But in 2019, this dependence suddenly collapsed after Huawei decided to develop its own chips.

What seemed like a fatal crisis at the time turned into a golden opportunity thanks to a US decision. As Washington tightened its restrictions on China's access to advanced chips, Beijing rushed to adopt a "Made in China" policy and provide a safety net for its domestic companies. This equation made Chen one of the world's richest men, with a fortune of $22.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

A Legendary Market Leap

Shares of his company, Cambricon Technologies, which specializes in designing artificial intelligence chips, have soared by more than 765% in two years, fueled by increased domestic demand following the ban on American chips. 

With a 28% stake in the company, Chen's wealth has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, making him the third richest person in the world under 40, after the heirs of Walmart and Red Bull.

Chen's story reflects China's shift from suppressing private sector giants to cultivating a new generation of state-linked tech elites. As Washington tightens its grip on chip supplies, companies like Cambricon have become "national heroes," protected by government policies and investor enthusiasm, in a scenario that raises questions about the sustainability of this rise.

This comes despite warnings from some analysts that the company's valuation may be overvalued. Shen Meng, director of investment bank Chanson, says, "The current growth is a low-income start and may not be sustainable without strong government support."

Fierce Competition with Western Giants

Although Chen is still far from the wealth of Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, his company benefited from Beijing's decision last August to reduce its reliance on Nvidia processors, especially in government projects. However, Cambricon itself warned investors against excessive optimism, emphasizing the continued impact of US sanctions and the difficulty of catching up with Western technology.

Even with the launch of the Siyuan 690 chip, experts believe the company is years behind Nvidia products, which possess a complex software system that is difficult to imitate quickly.

A Genius Journey from the Lab to the Top

Chen was born in 1985 into a modest family and displayed remarkable intelligence from a young age. He enrolled in a gifted student program at the University of Science and Technology of China, earning his PhD in computer science in 2010. He then worked with his brother at the Institute of Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where their research on the DianNao processor gained prominence in 2014, before they founded Cambercon in 2016.

The company's first major breakthrough came in 2017 through a partnership with Huawei to develop its smartphones, but the path wasn't without its challenges. In 2022, Washington added Cambercon to its list of sanctioned entities, accusing it of supporting the modernization of the Chinese military.

Explosive Domestic Demand

US sanctions created a market gap, prompting Beijing to mandate that companies purchase domestically produced chips. This led to a more than 500% jump in Cambercon's revenue in a single year, despite fierce competition from Huawei and other startups like Moore Threads and MetaX, which are preparing for their IPOs, as well as plans by companies such as Biren Technology and Iluvata CoreX to list in Hong Kong.

Despite this boom, experts warn of sharp fluctuations in chip company share prices, given the inflated expectations surrounding the size of the infrastructure required to run artificial intelligence models.