July 12, 2021 3 min read

They say that everything Elon Musk touches turns into gold, which seems to be true based on Chinese businessman Robin Zeng Yuqun. The founder of CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles, is now richer than Jack Ma, owner of Alibaba, reports Bloomberg.

At 53, Zeng Yuqun has a net worth of $50 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaires Index, thanks to CATL shares surging this year. In contrast, Jack Ma’s fortune is estimated to be worth $45.4 billion, following his losing streak since 2020.

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The Chinese tycoon, originally from a small village in Fujian province, founded Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) in 2011. In less than a decade, he managed to position it as the world’s largest producer of rechargeable cells for electric vehicles.

On June 26, it was announced that CATL had extended its collaboration agreement with Tesla until 2025 to provide batteries for its electric vehicles, something that other companies such as Panasonic and LG also do.

Tesla has signed a new long-term battery cell agreement with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co to guarantee supply between January 2022 and December 2025, according to information from Electrek. $ CATL $ TSLA $ NTTHF #Lithio #EV #Stockstowatch

– CC Inversiones (@cc_inversiones) June 30, 2021

With this, Robin Zeng Yuqun enters a select group of the five richest people in Asia, which includes Zhong Shanshan (Nongfu Spring and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy), Ma Huateng (Tencent and WeChat), Jack Ma and Zhang Yimin (TikTok).

China is increasingly committed to clean energy

According to specialized analysts, the rise in CATL shares and the consequent rise in Zeng Yuqun’s fortune are a sign that green energy is on the rise in China. Because of the trend, a new generation of Chinese tycoons are amassing huge fortunes by betting on clean energy.

“The billionaire ranking used to be dominated by real estate moguls and later by tech entrepreneurs, and now we are seeing more in the new energy sector,” says Hao Gao, director of a research center at Tsinghua University.

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The Asian country leads the electric vehicle market. In 2020 alone, retail sales of renewable energy cars increased by 9.8% to 1.11 million units in China.

In addition, the country is implementing and following strict environmental policies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. “As the leader in the electric vehicle battery industry, CATL will benefit most from the carbon emissions target,” Gao added.

A report by SNE Research states that global sales of batteries for electric vehicles more than doubled in the first four months of 2021, compared to the previous year. Of these, 32.5% correspond to CATL, which places it as the company with the largest market share.

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