US export bans on high end chips were meant to slow China’s AI ambitions. Instead, they created a new billionaire.
The founder of Chinese chip designer Cambricon, Chen Tianshi, has pushed his fortune to about 23 billion USD this year.
The Details
💹 Stock surge instead of collapse: Over the past 24 months Cambricon’s share price has risen by more than 765 %, after the company nearly collapsed in 2019 due to its dependence on Huawei.
📈 Wealth jump: Chen holds just under 28 % of Cambricon. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his stake grew to around 22,5 to 23 billion USD in 2025.
🎰 From pocket money to printing press: Cambricon’s revenue increased by more than 500 % over the past 12 months. In Q3 the company reported about 1,73 billion CNY (240 million USD) in revenue and 567 million CNY (78 million USD) in net profit.
🏛️ Blacklist as a business plan: Cambricon has been on the US Entity List since 2022. Washington blocks the export of Nvidia and AMD chips to China. Beijing pushes buy local policies, and orders now automatically go to suppliers like Cambricon.
A serious Nvidia challenger?
Technology gap remains: Cambricon’s new Siyuan 690 aims to compete with Nvidia in the cloud segment, but analysts say it is still several years behind and lacks the software depth of CUDA.
Ecosystem beats individual chip: Nvidia dominates with a complete stack of hardware, software, and a large developer community—Cambricon scores with strong compatibility with existing Nvidia workflows.
Their revenues are worlds apart: Nvidia generates about 60 billion USD in annual revenue, while Cambricon is in the low hundreds of millions.
The China Survival Guide for Western Businesses
Entity setup, WeChat strategy, hiring your first local team. 12+ years on the ground in Shanghai.
