Chen Tianshi, the founder of artificial intelligence chip startup Cambricon Technologies, experienced a dramatic shift in his fortunes, propelled by geopolitical tensions and China's strategic technological ambitions. In 2019, his company faced a significant challenge when its largest customer, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co., abruptly ceased most business to develop its own semiconductors, stripping Cambricon of over 95% of its revenue.

However, an unexpected turn of events, the US decision to restrict China's access to cutting-edge chips and Beijing's resolute push for homegrown technology, transformed Cambricon into a national champion. This halo of state sponsorship and a vast protected domestic market enabled Cambricon to thrive, catapulting Chen Tianshi into the ranks of the world's richest self-made billionaires.

Shares of Cambricon Technologies have soared by more than 765% over the past two years, and Chen's personal wealth, largely derived from his 28% stake in the Beijing-based producer of AI accelerators, has more than doubled to $22.5 billion since the beginning of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This meteoric rise highlights how China's robust support for its domestic AI industry is fostering a new class of state-aligned tech elites, contrasting with earlier crackdowns on private-sector titans.

As Washington's export bans created a vacuum for advanced chips, companies like Cambricon emerged, shielded by policy mandates and eager investors, becoming symbols of a new industrial order where political backing, rather than unfettered market freedom, dictates success. However, questions persist among observers regarding the sustainability of Cambricon's valuation, with some suggesting that its explosive revenue growth is primarily due to a low starting point and could be inflated without continuous policy support. Despite these reservations, Chen's net worth positions him as the third richest person globally at or under 40 years old, behind Lukas Walton and Mark Mateschitz.

Chen's journey to success also serves as a case study for China's state-supported academic pipeline. Born in Nanchang in 1985 to an electrical engineer father and a history teacher mother, Chen's intellect was recognized early. He and his older brother, Chen Yunji, were enrolled in a gifted students program at the elite University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, where Chen Tianshi earned a PhD in computer science in 2010. Subsequently, he joined his brother as a researcher at the computing institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a hub of the nation's scientific endeavors funded by state coffers.

It was at the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the brothers first gained international recognition for their academic papers on the DianNao accelerator in 2014. A year later, they unveiled their inaugural chip, a brain-inspired processor for deep learning, aptly named Cambricon after the Cambrian explosion, signifying an early evolutionary stage for AI. The Cambricon project was officially spun off as a company in 2016, with the academy serving as an initial financial backer. Its first major breakthrough occurred in 2017 when Huawei integrated Cambricon’s AI processor technology into its Mate 10 smartphone to enhance photography and gaming capabilities. This partnership, however, concluded in 2019 as Huawei began developing similar proprietary technology.

Following the split with Huawei, Cambricon strategically refocused its efforts on designing and selling AI chips for both cloud servers and edge devices. The company went public on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in Shanghai in 2020, but it consistently operated at a loss until achieving its first quarterly profits in the three-month period ending December 2024. A further challenge arose in 2022 when the US Department of Commerce added Cambricon to its entity list, citing concerns about its support for China’s military modernization, which restricted its access to advanced Western technologies.

Nevertheless, these US curbs paradoxically fueled Cambricon's prospects. When Washington expanded its export controls to prevent Nvidia and AMD from selling high-performance AI chips to China, it created a significant supply void. In response, Beijing enforced a series of preferential policies and financial incentives to accelerate domestic chip production, including granting Cambricon privileged access to government-backed contracts, funding for R&D, and priority integration into national AI initiatives. This strategic state backing solidified Cambricon's role as a linchpin of China’s AI semiconductor ambitions and cemented Chen Tianshi’s position as a central figure in the country’s emerging tech elite.