Chinese woman, 56, seated beside Musk & Tim Cook during Trump visit is factory worker turned multibillionaire

At a state banquet hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for US President Donald Trump during his visit to China on May 14, a Chinese businesswoman ended up seated between Tim Cook and Elon Musk.

The seating arrangement soon became a topic of discussion online and quickly went viral.

According to Bloomberg, 56-year-old Zhou Qunfei is the co-founder and chairman of touchscreen glass manufacturer Lens Technology.

From factory worker to business co-founder

According to HK01, Zhou was born in 1970 in rural Hunan and grew up in a poor family, losing her mother at a young age, while her father later became disabled after an injury.

At 15, she dropped out of school and moved to Shenzhen to work in factories.

She started on the production line, cutting and polishing watch glass at Aoya Optics, HK01 reported.

While working, she studied part-time at night school and taught herself skills including accounting, computing and screen-printing technology.

She later became a supervisor at the factory.

When production at the factory was halted after the owner withdrew investment, Zhou took over the workshop and continued operations using techniques she had learned on the job.

She then began producing printed watch glasses, which became the foundation of her later business.

In 1993, she started a small business with family members, which would eventually grow into Lens Technology.

How she entered Apple’s supply chain

South China Morning Post reported that Lens Technology’s breakthrough came in 2007, when it entered Apple’s supply chain as a cover glass supplier for the first iPhone.

At the time, Apple was seeking durable glass screens to replace plastic displays, but few suppliers were able to meet the technical requirements.

HK01 reported that Zhou played a key role in improving production processes to meet those demands.

As Apple’s iPhone became a global product, Lens Technology grew alongside it, with Apple accounting for a significant share of the company’s revenue in its early years, SCMP added.

HK01 reported that Lens Technology later expanded into the electric vehicle sector and now supplies automotive glass and components to Tesla.

A quiet but influential player in global tech

SCMP reported that Lens Technology was listed on Shenzhen’s ChiNext board in 2015, a stock exchange board in China for fast-growing and tech-focused companies, before later going public and listing in Hong Kong in 2025.

It was also reported that she is estimated to have a net worth of around S$20.48 billion, adding that Zhou has been repeatedly ranked among China’s richest women.