From $1.20 a day in a watch-glass factory to China's richest woman: Zhou Qunfei
Zhou Qunfei left school before finishing it. In a watch-glass factory her daily wage was the equivalent of just $1.20. That factory worker is now China's richest woman. The founder of the technology company Lens Technology, Zhou now has a fortune of 127 billion yuan, equal to about $19 billion.
The British newspaper The Independent reported on Friday (30 October) that Zhou, 56, had regained the top spot in the Hurun Richest Women in China 2026 list published on 28 October. Her wealth has risen 15 percent in the past year.
In second place in the list is Zhong Huijuan, founder of Hansoh Pharmaceutical. Her fortune amounts to 124 billion yuan.
Zhou was born in 1970 in China's Hunan province. As a teenager she left school and moved to Shenzhen, where she started work in a watch-glass factory. Through the factory work she mastered various techniques of glass processing and design.
At just 23, Zhou set up her own glass-processing workshop. She later founded Lens Technology. The company quickly built an important position in making glass covers for smartphone screens.
After winning the chance to supply glass covers for Apple's first iPhone in 2007, the company's business expanded greatly. From 2011 to the first half of 2014, about half of Lens Technology's main business revenue came from Apple.
In March 2015 the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Zhou's wealth grew rapidly as a result, and that same year she was recognised as China's richest woman for the first time.
In 2018, however, her fortune took a big hit when the company's share price fell amid the US-China trade war and concerns over Apple's sales. Lens Technology later expanded beyond smartphones into electric vehicles, artificial-intelligence-related components and robotics. In July 2025 it listed on the Hong Kong stock market for a second time to raise funds for expansion.
Zhou's position in the technology sector became more visible on 14 May at a state banquet in Beijing hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the event, held for US President Donald Trump's visit to China, she was seated between Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.
Speaking recently at the Pujiang Innovation Forum 2026, Zhou said that in the age of artificial intelligence, importance must be given not only to computing capability and algorithms, but to continuous innovation across the whole technology system.
According to Hurun's list, 65 percent of China's top 50 richest women are self-made entrepreneurs. Their combined wealth is a record 1.93 trillion yuan.
