In Profile: How a Lens-Maker Turned a Family Workshop Into an Empire Supplying Apple
Caixin Global · Zhao Tiantian Published Nov 6 ·
Zhou Qunfei has turned her expertise in precision manufacturing into a business supplying some of the world’s biggest tech companies. The self-made entrepreneur is now steering her company into EVs, AI and robotics as she seeks new areas of growth
1. Zhou Qunfei sat with Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Jensen Huang at a Beijing state banquet on May 14 welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump, the only female entrepreneur in that elite circle [para. 1]. The next day, shares of her company Lens Technology jumped nearly 6%; just months later, the 2026 Hurun China Rich List named her China's richest woman with a net worth of 127 billion yuan ($19 billion), and with husband Zheng Junlong their combined 128 billion yuan placed 33rd [para. 2]. Two days before those rankings, Lens reported third-quarter net profit of 1.4 billion yuan, down 50% year-on-year [para. 3]. The company is now pivoting from a maturing smartphone cycle toward electric vehicles, AI hardware and humanoid robots [para. 4].
2. Born in 1970 in rural Hunan, Zhou lost her mother at five; her father was blinded and lost two fingers in an accident, and she went with him selling bamboo baskets [para. 6]. At 15 she became a migrant worker in Shenzhen, earning a few yuan a day at a watch-glass factory while learning silk-screen printing [para. 7]. She took over the plant around 1990 and, in 1993 at 23, borrowed 20,000 yuan to start a family workshop [para. 8]. After a decade of difficult clients and creditors—including selling her home to settle debts—she adapted watch-glass technology to mobile phone panels, winning TCL, Motorola V3, Samsung, Nokia and HTC orders; Lens Technology was formally established in 2003 [para. 9][para. 10]. In 2007, Lens became an essential first-generation iPhone supplier, later adding Apple Watch, Mac and Vision Pro [para. 11].
3. Apple's share of Lens revenue climbed from under 30% to a 2022 peak of 71% [para. 13]. After Lens went public in October 2015, Hurun first crowned Zhou China's richest woman, worth 50 billion yuan [para. 14]. Results swung with iPhone cycles: revenue rose 55.6% to 23.7 billion yuan in 2017 with net profit of 2.05 billion yuan, then profit fell nearly 70% to 637 million yuan in 2018 [para. 15]; in 2021, with Apple at 66.5% of revenue, net profit dropped 57.7% to 2.1 billion yuan despite record revenue of 45.3 billion [para. 16]. Market cap shrank from a 200-billion-yuan peak to just over 50 billion [para. 17]. Gross margin fell from 29.4% in 2020 to 14.2% in the first half of 2025 amid price wars with Biel Crystal [para. 18].
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