Robin Zeng

Robin Zeng
Born	1968 or 1969 (sources differ) Ningde, Fujian, China
Occupation	businessman
Known for	Founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL)
Education	Shanghai Jiao Tong University (bachelor’s degree, 1989); doctorate (see text)

Chinese businessman; founder, chairman and chief executive of the battery maker CATL

Robin Zeng (Zeng Yuqun) is a Chinese businessman who founded Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), one of the world's largest makers of batteries for electric vehicles, and is its chairman and chief executive.^[1]^[2] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Robin Zeng 46th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$43.07 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Batteries.^[1]^[3] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Robin Zeng 34th, at US$53.2 billion.^[4]

Early life and education

The Observer reported that Zeng was born in 1968 in Ningde, Fujian province, a place it described as a rural village. Forbes gives only the year 1969. CATL's 2025 prospectus described him as 57 years old.^[5]^[1]^[2] He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in July 1989; the Observer says he studied shipbuilding.^[2]^[5] Sources disagree on his doctorate. The Observer says he earned a PhD in condensed-matter physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, while Forbes's education data list the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.^[5]^[1]

Business career

Forbes and the Observer report that Zeng began his career at a state-owned shipbuilding company in Fujian. The Observer adds that he left after three months for Dongguan, where he worked at SAE Magnetics.^[1]^[5] In 1999 he helped set up Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), a maker of lithium batteries for consumer electronics. Japan's TDK bought ATL in 2005 and kept Zeng to run it until March 2017; he also became a vice-president and senior vice-president of TDK.^[2] He founded CATL in December 2011, was a director until May 2013, and has been chairman since June 2017 and general manager since August 2022.^[2]

CATL is listed in Shenzhen and, since 20 May 2025, in Hong Kong (stock code 3750), where its offering was priced at HK$263 a share and drew investors including sovereign wealth funds.^[6] The Observer called the US$4.6 billion Hong Kong offering the year's largest IPO worldwide at the time and said most of the proceeds would go to a battery plant in Hungary. It also reported that CATL's global market share reached 36.7% in 2024.^[5] CATL began trial production at its new cell building in Debrecen, Hungary, in September 2026.^[7] Forbes reports that CATL supplies BMW, Geely and Tesla, and that a Ford battery factory in Michigan using CATL-licensed technology was completed in June 2026 after repeated delays over geopolitical concerns.^[1]

Wealth

Forbes gives the source of his wealth as batteries.^[1] The 2025 prospectus disclosed that Zeng controlled 1,024,704,949 A shares (23.27% of the A shares) through Xiamen Ruiting, which he owns 55% directly and 45% through his wholly owned Ruihua Investment.^[2]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 9 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2018. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[4]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2018	1284	1.9
2019	224	6.8
2020	139	9.7
2021	52	28.4
2022	29	44.8
2023	38	33.4
2024	89	22.9
2025	42	37.9
2026	34	53.2

Philanthropy

In October 2026 CnEVPost reported that Zeng had given 1.5 million CATL shares, worth about 420 million yuan, to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Fujian (Ningde) Advanced Research Institute. The institute was set up in June 2026 by the Ningde municipal government, the university, the Fujian education department and CATL.^[8]

Political activity

No party donations or political roles for Zeng were found in the sources checked.

Controversies and legal issues

In January 2025 the US Department of Defense added CATL to its list of Chinese Military Companies. CATL's prospectus calls the designation a mistake, says the company has never engaged in military-related business, and says it is working with the Department to reverse it.^[2] No legal proceedings against Zeng personally were found.

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."