Robin Zeng, founder and chairman of the battery maker CATL, is ranked No. 34 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $53.2 billion. CATL makes lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
Robin Zeng Yuqun was born in 1968 and is from Fujian Province, China. He earned a marine engineering degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University, a master’s in electronics and information engineering from South China University of Technology in 2001, and a PhD in physics from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 34, with $53.2 billion, listed under Hong Kong
- Later estimate: Wikipedia says Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimate his wealth at about $63 billion in 2026
Career
Zeng worked at a state-owned shipbuilding company in Fujian early in his career, then spent ten years at an electronic parts factory.
- 1999: he co-founded Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) with two former colleagues; it produced lithium polymer batteries for digital devices, including iPhones, according to a Financial Times report in 2018
- 2005: Japan’s TDK acquired ATL, and Zeng stayed on as a manager
- 2012: he and vice chairman Huang Shilin spun off ATL’s electric-vehicle battery operations as a new company, CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology)
- 2017: CATL went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange
- 2024: CATL expanded into renewable energy, power grids and energy storage systems
Public Roles
Zeng is a vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Why It Matters
CATL became a world leader in lithium-ion batteries, according to Wikipedia, and its share price drives Zeng’s wealth.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: The CATL stand at the IAA Transportation fair in Hanover, September 2024 (file photo; Robin Zeng is not pictured). Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
