In 2019, Chen Tianshi was an obscure figure even within China’s fast-growing tech sector, struggling to keep his three-year-old chip startup alive after its largest customer, Huawei Technologies, suddenly cut almost all ties to build its own semiconductors. At the time, Huawei accounted for over 95% of Cambricon Technologies’ revenue. But a geopolitical shock soon reversed his fortunes. As detailed in Bloomberg reporting, Washington’s escalating export bans on advanced chips created both a crisis and an unprecedented opportunity—one that would transform Chen into one of the world’s fastest-rising self-made billionaires.
As the U.S. tightened controls to block Chinese access to cutting-edge processors, Beijing responded by doubling down on state-backed semiconductor programs and aggressively promoting local suppliers. Few benefited more than Cambricon. Over the past 24 months, the firm’s shares skyrocketed more than 765%, and Chen’s personal wealth—largely from his 28% stake—has surged to $22.5 billion. His ascent highlights how China’s industrial policy is minting a new generation of politically aligned tech tycoons, just years after regulators cracked down on its private-sector giants.
Yet the soaring valuation has triggered debate among analysts who question how much of Cambricon’s rise stems from state protection rather than technological leadership. Shen Meng of Chanson & Co. warned that the company’s explosive revenue growth may reflect a low starting base, and that its valuation is vulnerable if government support cools. Despite the skepticism, Chen is now the world’s third-richest person aged 40 or younger—behind only Lukas Walton and Mark Mateschitz, heirs to the Walmart and Red Bull fortunes—according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The frenzy around Cambricon intensified in August when Beijing urged local firms to avoid Nvidia’s new H20 processors, especially for government projects. That boosted demand for domestic alternatives and sent Cambricon’s share price soaring, prompting the company to publicly temper expectations. In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, it cautioned investors about U.S. sanctions, the difficulty of catching up technologically, and rumors about nonexistent products. Analysts noted that Cambricon’s upcoming Siyuan 690 chip is still believed to lag years behind Nvidia’s equivalent hardware.
Despite the technical gap, Chen’s story has become emblematic of China’s state-supported innovation pipeline—one that also produced DeepSeek and its young founder Liang Wenfeng. Born in 1985 to an engineer father and teacher mother in Nanchang, Chen was identified early as gifted and placed in a special program at the University of Science and Technology of China. After earning his PhD in 2010, he joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he and his brother gained international attention for research on the DianNao accelerator in 2014. Their first chip, a brain-inspired processor for deep learning, was named Cambricon after the Cambrian explosion—symbolizing a new era in AI evolution.
In 2016, Cambricon spun out as a company with backing from the academy. Its breakthrough came in 2017 when Huawei used its technology in the Mate 10 smartphone. When Huawei later ended the partnership to develop its own AI chips, Cambricon pivoted to focus on accelerators for cloud servers and edge devices. The company went public in 2020 but struggled with losses until posting its first quarterly profit in late 2024. The turnaround coincided with a surge in domestic demand after U.S. sanctions left Chinese firms scrambling to replace imported chips.
The company endured a major setback in 2022 when the U.S. added Cambricon to the entity list for allegedly supporting China’s military modernization, blocking its access to advanced Western technology. But the move backfired. When Washington expanded export controls to prevent Nvidia and AMD from selling high-performance AI processors to China, a supply vacuum emerged. Beijing swiftly mandated that domestic companies “buy local,” effectively guaranteeing Cambricon a vast and protected market. Revenues soared more than 500% in the past 12 months, even as competition from Huawei and other startups intensifies.
Industry experts caution that turbulence is inevitable. Shuman Ghosemajumder, CEO of Reken, noted that Cambricon will face volatility similar to Nvidia as the world debates how much computing power is truly necessary for generative AI—and how much of the current demand may be exaggerated. Still, the geopolitical winds that initially threatened Cambricon have now become the force driving its extraordinary rise, turning Chen Tianshi into one of China’s most powerful new industrial figures.
