Building the battery maker CATL
Robin Zeng's wealth comes from his shareholding in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited, known as CATL, which he founded in 2011 in Ningde, Fujian province, and leads as chairman. CATL makes lithium ion battery cells and packs for electric cars, buses and trucks, and systems for storing electricity on power grids.
The company grew out of an earlier business. In 1999 Zeng co-founded Amperex Technology Limited, or ATL, which made lithium polymer batteries for mobile phones and other consumer electronics. ATL became a major supplier to global device makers and was sold to the Japanese electronics group TDK in 2005, although Zeng and his partners continued to run it. In 2011 they spun out the vehicle battery activity as a separate company, which became CATL.
CATL grew at the moment China decided to make electric vehicles a strategic industry. Government policies favoured local battery suppliers, and the company won contracts with Chinese carmakers while also securing an early supply deal with BMW, which gave it credibility abroad. CATL listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange in 2018 and added a listing in Hong Kong in 2025. As electric vehicle sales rose worldwide, CATL became the largest maker of electric car batteries by volume, and Zeng's large stake in it is the main source of his fortune.
CATL's products and global footprint
CATL's business spans several areas:
- Vehicle batteries: cells and packs for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and buses, supplied to Chinese and foreign carmakers including Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen group brands
- Energy storage: large battery systems for power grids, renewable energy projects and businesses
- Battery materials and recycling: through subsidiaries working on recycling and on materials such as lithium, nickel and cathode chemicals
- New technologies: lithium iron phosphate cells with fast charging, sodium ion batteries announced in 2021 and cell to pack designs
The company has built factories outside China, including a plant in Thuringia, Germany, and a large plant under construction in Debrecen, Hungary, as well as a project in Spain with Stellantis. In the United States it has licensed its technology to Ford for a battery plant in Michigan instead of building its own factory, an arrangement shaped by political sensitivities around Chinese companies.
In 2024 the United States Department of Defense placed CATL on a list of companies it says have links to China's military, a designation the company disputed.
From a village in Fujian to a physics doctorate
Zeng Yuqun was born in 1968 in a village near Ningde, in Fujian province, into a farming family. He did well at school and studied marine engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, graduating in 1989.
He was assigned to a state owned enterprise in Fujian but left after a few months and moved to Dongguan in Guangdong, where he joined SAE Magnetics, a Hong Kong owned maker of components for computer hard drives. He rose to senior engineering and management roles there, gaining experience in high volume manufacturing for global technology customers.
In 1999 he left with colleagues to start ATL. While running the business, he went back to study and earned a doctorate in condensed matter physics from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. His technical background has been central to how he describes CATL's strategy, with heavy spending on research and development and a focus on battery chemistry rather than only on scale.
Giving and public standing
Zeng has generally kept a lower public profile than many Chinese technology founders, although his role in the electric vehicle industry has made him increasingly visible at international forums and industry events.
He has made donations to education, including gifts to his alma mater, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and to universities and schools in Fujian. CATL has supported projects in Ningde, transforming the formerly modest coastal city into a major industrial center with its headquarters, factories and research facilities.
Zeng has been appointed to several advisory and political bodies in China, reflecting the importance of the battery industry in national economic policy. He has spoken publicly about the role of batteries in reducing dependence on oil and in supporting renewable energy, and about supply chain security for raw materials. CATL's growth has also placed him at the center of debates about trade and industrial policy between China, the United States and Europe, where governments weigh the benefits of CATL investment against concerns about reliance on Chinese suppliers.