From construction site guard to China's richest woman: "touchscreen queen" Zhou Qunfei tops Hurun's 2026 list with $19 billion

Who is the richest woman in China? Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens Technology, known as the "touchscreen queen". The 56 year old holds a fortune of 127 billion yuan, about 19 billion dollars, according to the Hurun Richest Women in China 2026 list published in late October, as reported by VnExpress. It is the second time she has taken the top spot, overtaking pharmaceutical founder Zhong Huijuan.

Her story is the kind that spreads across social media in China and beyond. Zhou grew up in rural poverty, left school at 16 and worked as a security guard on a construction site before building a company that made the glass on the first iPhone. Today Lens Technology supplies parts for electric cars and humanoid robots. Her rise, fall and comeback trace the arc of China's manufacturing boom itself.

From a Hunan village to Shenzhen's factories

Zhou was born in a mountain village in Hunan province. She lost her mother at the age of five, and her father later became blind after a workplace accident, The Standard reported. Coming from such poverty, her journey to the top has become a classic rags to riches story that has inspired many migrant workers across China.

She dropped out of high school at 16 and moved to Shenzhen, then a fast growing manufacturing city, where she worked first as a construction site security guard and later as an assembly line worker at a glass factory, according to the South China Morning Post. That factory job introduced her to the craft that would make her fortune.

In 1993, at just 23, she set up her own workshop and taught herself advanced screen printing and specialised curved glass printing techniques. Those skills, learned on the factory floor rather than in a classroom, would become the foundation of a global supplier to the world's biggest phone makers.

Shenzhen in the late 1980s and early 1990s was the front line of China's economic reforms, a special economic zone where factories sprang up to serve export markets. Millions of young migrants from inland provinces such as Hunan moved there for work, and a small number, like Zhou, went on to build companies of their own.

The iPhone deal that made her fortune

Lens Technology was established a decade later in Shenzhen by Zhou and a partner. The company first landed a deal with Motorola and later got its big break supplying touchscreens for Apple's first iPhone. Glass covers that resisted scratches and responded to touch were central to the smartphone revolution, and Lens was among the companies that made them at scale.

The company went public in Shenzhen in 2015, the same year Zhou was first crowned China's richest woman. Her story was celebrated as proof that a self made entrepreneur without family money or connections could reach the top of China's business world through skill and persistence.

The path was not smooth. Zhou has recounted in an interview with CNBC how her partner left the firm and a rival tried to squeeze her out of the business. In 2018, Lens Technology's stock plunged amid US China trade tensions and concerns about Apple's sales, erasing much of her wealth, according to The Straits Times.

Zhou Qunfei's fortune is a map of Asia's electronics boom: from hand printed glass in a Shenzhen workshop to iPhone screens, electric cars and robots.

Working for Apple brought both rewards and risks. Apple's suppliers gain enormous volumes and credibility, but they also face intense pressure on prices and quality, and their fortunes rise and fall with the iPhone's sales cycle. Lens Technology's later push to diversify was a direct response to that dependence.

How Lens Technology reinvented itself

After the 2018 shock, Lens Technology diversified beyond smartphones, expanding into advanced manufacturing and riding demand driven by AI, robotics and other emerging industries. It now makes parts for a broad range of products, including computers, smart wearables, electric vehicles and humanoid robots.

That shift matters because smartphone demand has matured, while electric vehicles and robots are among the fastest growing manufacturing sectors in China. Supplying glass, structural parts and assemblies for these products gives Lens new customers and reduces its dependence on any single phone maker.

The company listed in Hong Kong in July 2025, adding a second listing to its Shenzhen shares and giving it access to international investors. Zhou attended the listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, an image that captured how far she had come from the Hunan village where she was born.

Humanoid robots are an especially notable bet. Chinese companies are racing to build robots for factories and homes, and suppliers that can make precise, durable parts at scale stand to benefit if the industry takes off. For Lens, it is a way to apply decades of precision manufacturing experience to a new market.

China's richest women, and what the list says

Zhou overtook Zhong Huijuan, the former chemistry teacher who founded drugmaker Hansoh Pharmaceutical, to reclaim the top spot. Both are self made founders, which reflects a broader pattern in China's rich lists, where entrepreneurs in manufacturing, technology and healthcare have replaced property tycoons, many of whom have dropped off the rankings since the real estate crisis. The milestones in Zhou's career include:

• Leaving school at 16 and moving to Shenzhen
• Working as a security guard and factory worker
• Founding her own workshop in 1993 at age 23
• Supplying touchscreens for Apple's first iPhone
• Listing Lens Technology in Shenzhen in 2015 and Hong Kong in 2025

China's rich lists stand out for the number of self made women near the top, many of whom founded manufacturing and healthcare companies. Zhou's humble start makes her one of the most recognisable of them.

The list also shows how wealth in China is shifting. Manufacturing champions that supply global brands and new industries such as electric vehicles and robotics are creating fortunes, while traditional property wealth has shrunk.

China's rich lists have been reshaped in recent years by the property slump, with mainland property tycoons disappearing from the top of the rankings, as VnExpress has reported. Manufacturing founders such as Zhou have risen in relative terms as real estate fortunes shrank.

What her story means for Asia's manufacturing

For Southeast Asia, Lens Technology's journey is a reminder of how Chinese suppliers have become global leaders in electronics components. As global brands diversify production across Asia, Chinese suppliers compete and cooperate with factories across the region, including in Vietnam, where Samsung, Foxconn and others make phones and electronics, a shift reflected in our report on Vietnam overtaking Indonesia in GDP per capita.

For entrepreneurs, Zhou's story is a lesson in technical mastery and resilience. She built her business on a skill she learned on the factory floor, survived partners leaving and a market crash, and reinvented her company for new industries. That combination, more than luck, is what put her at the top of China's rich list twice.

Zhou Qunfei's return to the top of China's rich list caps a journey from a Hunan village and a security guard's post to a 19 billion dollar fortune built on glass for the first iPhone. As Lens Technology moves into electric vehicles and robots, her story remains one of the clearest examples of how Asia's manufacturing boom created self made wealth.