Chinese Billionaires Getting Richer With Clean Energy Businesses

Contemporary Amperex Technology Chairman Robin Zeng’s fortune more than doubled from a year ago to … [+] $50.8 billion on the 2021 Forbes China Rich List. (Photo by Paul Zinken/picture alliance via Getty Images)

picture alliance via Getty Images

The UN global warming conference COP26 in Glasgow that ended this week attracted the attention of politicians, activists, and media around the world. The U.S. and China made headlines after an agreement to work to reduce methane emissions, encourage decarbonization and create regulatory frameworks to reduce greenhouse gases.

And yet, already, there are plenty of examples of Chinese entrepreneurs working to slow climate change. In fact, green tech billionaires were the big standouts on the new 2021 Forbes China Rich List of the country’s 100 wealthiest entrepreneurs published in early November. More than a quarter of members made their fortunes in industries that are at the forefront of fighting climate change, up from approximately an eighth last year.

The country itself, already home to the world’s biggest auto market, boasted 1.3 million sales of EVs in 2020, making China No. 1 globally, according to Statista. The EV share of the local market has increased from six percent last year to 19% last month, according to a report on Saturday in China’s government media. (See related post here.) The country is also one of the biggest suppliers of equipment for the lithium batteries that many EVs are powered on; in the solar energy field, China produces more than 70% of the world’s solar cells and modules.

Among this year’s EV movers are Hong Kong-traded EV maker BYD, backed by Warren Buffett; its shares more than doubled, adding more than $12 billion to the fortune of its founder Wang Chuanfu, who ranks No. 14 this year with a fortune worth $23.5 billion, up from No. 39 last year. XPeng’s New York-traded shares nearly doubled in the past year, lifting chairman He Xiaopeng into the ranks of the top 100 for the first time at No. 76 with a fortune worth $7.46 billion.

Even more dramatic than gains among auto makers have been gains in battery manufacturers that serve a wide number of different EV customers. Four list members – including Robin Zeng, China’s richest billionaire in green tech — made their fortunes in Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest supplier of batteries for electric vehicles for such customers as BMW and Volkswagen. Zeng, its chairman, ranks third among China’s richest with a net worth that more than doubled to $50.8 billion from a year ago; he also boasts the second-biggest wealth increase on this year’s list. The other three who got rich from CATL are co-vice chairman Huang Shilin (No. 15, $22.9 billion) CATL investor Pei Zhenhua (No. 32 $14.7 billion) and Co-vice chairman Li Ping (No. 52 $10.2 billion). Combined, the four own nearly half of CATL.

Below is a list of 26 Chinese billionaires whose fortunes are fueled by “green” energy:

3. ROBIN ZENG

$50.8 BILLION UP

CATL

AGE: 52

8. WEI JIANJUN

$31 BILLION UP

GREAT WALL MOTOR

AGE: 57

14. WANG CHUANFU (See related post here)

$23.5 BILLION UP

BYD