Zhou Qunfei, founder and chairwoman of Lens Technology, found herself seated between Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook at the state banquet during US President Donald Trump's visit to China last Thursday, alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the same table.
The 55-year-old's rise from an impoverished rural childhood to building a HK$200 billion mobile phone glass empire is nothing short of legendary. Born in a poor mountain village in Hunan province, Zhou lost her mother at five and her father became blind due to a work accident. She dropped out of school in the second year of junior high at 15 and headed to Shenzhen to work.
Starting on a construction site before joining a watch glass factory, Zhou worked on the assembly line while attending night school, learning accounting and computing. In 1990, when the factory owner considered abandoning an expansion project, the 20-year-old boldly offered to take over, using self-taught screen printing technology to create patterned watch glass.
She set up her own workshop in 1993 with 20,000 yuan savings. The 1997 Asian financial crisis became a turning point, allowing her to acquire equipment from struggling clients and vertically integrate her supply chain. In 2001, she pioneered the application of watch glass technology to mobile phone screens, creating the world's first glass-screen phone.
She founded Lens Technology in 2003 and secured a partnership with Motorola the following year. When Apple began developing the first iPhone in 2006, it turned to Zhou's team to solve the challenge of producing a glass screen. Lens Technology has since worked on virtually every generation of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.
Known as the "queen of mobile phone glass," Zhou remains low-key, rarely giving interviews. Long-time employees say she still arrives at work on time daily, eats in the company canteen and flies economy. She also holds Hong Kong permanent residency.
Lens Technology listed in Shenzhen in 2015 and in Hong Kong in July 2025. Zhou's personal net worth exceeds 110 billion yuan, making her the second-richest woman in China.
