Visionary Leaders
They measure the business empire from the commanding heights of the era.
Robin Zeng
“The safety of power batteries is the lifeline of CATL, and zero defects is our goal.”
The global new energy revolution is surging, and China's power battery industry is rising strongly. Zeng Yuqun and CATL have become the most important industrial symbols of this era. He was born in a farm family in eastern Fujian. He relied on technology and long-term vision. He gave up stability and started his own business twice, turning a start-up company into the world's leading trillion-level lithium battery empire. He does not chase the limelight, does not seek fame, and relies on hard-core...
Robin Zeng
Asia cover character｜Zeng Yuqun: From a farmer’s boy to a global lithium battery overlord, the landscape is clear.
Cover Character·Pattern｜Total Issue 038-ACF-GJ-2026
The global new energy revolution is surging, and China's power battery industry is rising strongly. Zeng Yuqun and CATL have become the most important industrial symbols of this era. He was born in a farmer's family in Eastern Fujian. He relied on technology and long-term vision. He gave up stability and started his own business twice to build a start-up company into the world's leading trillion-level lithium battery empire. He did not chase the limelight or seek fame. He broke the monopoly of foreign capital with hard-core technology and seized the global high ground with strategic determination. After reaching the top, he donated billions of yuan to support education and cultivate talents, integrating his personal efforts into the future of national science and technology.
From the ultimate research on a resistor to the global leadership of an industry; from the silent accumulation in the workshop to the power of China on the world stage, Zeng Yuqun's life has long transcended the boundaries of personal success and has become a vivid footnote of Made in China moving toward Creation in China. A true industry leader is never limited to scale and wealth, but to layout the times with a long-term vision and to carry out the mission with a broad pattern.
1. Starting from a humble background, unwilling to settle for mediocrity: Precipitating technical confidence in silence
Zeng Yuqun's life began in an ordinary farmhouse in Lankou Village, Ningde, Fujian. Dashan gave him a calm and reserved character, and also taught him early on that only by being down-to-earth and working hard can he find his own path.
After graduating from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he entered a state-owned enterprise and won the iron rice bowl that everyone envied at that time. A monthly salary of 47.5 yuan, stability and comfort, and a view to the end are the stable lives pursued by countless people. But Zeng Yuqun has never been content with the status quo. He doesn't want to waste his talents in step-by-step procedures, and he doesn't want his technical ideals to be trapped in an unchanging daily routine.
Between stability and breakthrough, he resolutely chose the latter. He resigned from his iron job and went south to Dongguan alone. He joined Xinke Electronics and worked as a grassroots technician for ten years. In the past ten years, he has devoted almost all his time to workshops and laboratories, understanding every part, every process, and every technical detail. While others were taking a break from get off work, he was still delving into debugging. In order to overcome technical problems with resistors, he stayed on the production line for several hours, repeatedly testing and optimizing until the problem was completely solved.
He has always firmly believed that there are no shortcuts to technology, and only by being down-to-earth and immersed can we achieve truly outstanding results. Ten years of accumulation have given him a deep understanding of electronic manufacturing, material technology, and R&D systems, and also laid the solid foundation for his future entry into the lithium battery industry. This period of silence without a halo created qualities that he will use throughout his life: focus, tenacity, reverence for technology, and respect for common sense.
2. Two entrepreneurial ventures, building a life on technology: blazing the Chinese road in no man’s land
In 1999, Zeng Yuqun and his partners founded New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (ATL) in Hong Kong, officially entering the lithium battery track. In the early days of starting a business, the team encountered a technical difficulty recognized by the global industry - the bulging problem of polymer lithium batteries. This is a high wall that stands before mass production, and it is also a bottleneck that deters countless companies.
Zeng Yuqun led his team to tackle the problem day and night, spending time in the laboratory and struggling with technology. He tested 7 sets of formulas continuously within two weeks, and successfully solved the problem after countless failures to overcome this worldwide problem. With breakthroughs in key technologies, ATL has become the only company in the world to achieve large-scale mass production of polymer soft pack batteries. It has successfully entered the supply chain of top global technology companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, and once occupied half of the market share.
Technology is his belief that he has never wavered in.
In 2005, due to capital changes, ATL was acquired by Japan's TDK Group. This experience did not stop him, but allowed him to see the future of the industry more clearly: the real main battlefield of lithium batteries is power batteries; opportunities in China's new energy era are coming. He has a more determined goal in mind: to create China's own high-end power battery brand and let Chinese technology have a say in the global new energy stage.
In 2011, Zeng Yuqun returned to his hometown of Ningde and founded Ningde Times, starting his second business venture. He decisively focused on ternary lithium batteries and targeted the supply chains of global mainstream car companies. At that time, the domestic new energy industry was still in its infancy, and the power battery market was almost monopolized by foreign capital. Questions and pressures followed one after another. At the start-up stage of the company, funds were tight, and the account balance was only enough to last for three months. Some core personnel chose to leave because they saw no future.
The road ahead was difficult, but Zeng Yuqun never wavered. He traveled around to raise funds, and even mortgaged his personal property when the situation was most difficult, just to keep his technical ideals in mind. He often said that what he was betting on was not a temporary trend, but the future of new energy and the confidence of Made in China. If Chinese companies dare not venture or try, China Lithium Battery will always be able to lag behind others.
He insists on putting research and development first, and leads the team to continue to make breakthroughs in core technologies with the belief of "only looking for methods for success, not reasons for failure." In just four years, CATL's sales have jumped to the top three in the world. In 2012, the company successfully won an order from BMW and became the first domestic power battery company to enter the supply chain of an international luxury car company, officially opening the door to the global high-end market.
Since then, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and other global mainstream car companies have joined hands to cooperate. CATL has gradually broken down foreign technology monopoly and market barriers, allowing China's lithium battery to truly stand at the center of the world stage.
3. Go far in the future, keep the family and country in mind: repay the country with industry, and open up the future with education
In 2018, CATL was listed on the GEM. Its market value once exceeded 1.6 trillion yuan, becoming a benchmark enterprise on the GEM. As his career reaches its peak, Zeng Yuqun becomes increasingly low-key and quiet. He devotes more energy to something longer-term and more valuable: talents and education.
He knows well that knowledge changes destiny, and the foundation of a technologically powerful country lies in talents. In 2026, he donated 2 billion yuan to Shanghai Jiao Tong University to continue to support scientific research innovation and talent training. So far, he has donated more than 3.4 billion yuan to universities and scientific research institutions, setting a record for individual donations to domestic universities.
He is not just a simple donation, but has also been deeply involved in the science and technology education system for a long time. From campus science popularization and youth scientific research support to talent incubation and industrial collaboration, he has quietly built an ecological chain of talent cultivation for more than ten years. In his view, the ultimate competition in the industry is the competition of talents, and today’s investment will pave the way for the future of China’s science and technology.
Under his leadership, CATL has never stopped innovating. A series of leading technologies such as sodium-ion batteries and third-generation CTP Kirin batteries have been launched one after another, constantly refreshing the global power battery technology ceiling. The company not only deeply develops power batteries, but also comprehensively deploys the entire industrial chain ecology of energy storage, battery recycling, integration of optical storage, charging and inspection, builds a global new energy landscape, and promotes the accelerated transformation of the energy system to a clean, efficient, and low-carbon one.
Today, CATL has ranked first in global power battery shipments for many consecutive years, with a far leading market share, and has become a resounding Chinese business card in the global new energy field. Even though he is at the top of the industry, Zeng Yuqun still maintains his original intention of starting a business. He works on the research and development frontline at least two days a week, keeps a close eye on the technological frontier, and maintains his persistence in innovation and reverence for technology.
4. Enlightenment of the Times: Vision determines realm, pattern determines outcome
The story of Zeng Yuqun is a story of an ordinary person who relied on persistence, technology and structure to grow into a leader of the times. He has spent half his life practicing to prove that real leaders are never hindered by immediate gains and losses, and are never shaken by short-term interests; they see farther, walk more steadily, and bear heavier responsibilities.
From a farmer's boy to a global lithium battery overlord, from a workshop technician to an industry leader, what Zeng Yuqun has embarked on is not only a path of personal struggle, but also a path for China's manufacturing to reach the top of the world. With technology as its backbone, innovation as its soul and pattern as its wings, he stands firm in the wave of the times and stands tall in global competition.
Vision determines the state, and the pattern determines the outcome. Real strength does not lie in temporary scale and speed, but in long-term persistence, deep responsibility and future-oriented mind.
The story of Zeng Yuqun and the Ningde era continues. In the grand narrative of the global energy revolution, this entrepreneur from the mountains of eastern Fujian is leading China's new energy industry towards a broader future with his unchanged original intention and broad pattern.
[Abstract of public account]
From a farmer's boy to a global lithium battery hegemon, Zeng Yuqun built a trillion-dollar lithium battery empire based on technology and a long-term vision. He donated 3.4 billion to support education and wrote the Chinese entrepreneur's responsibility for the times.
Data source
Zeng Yuqun is a native of Lankou Village, Ningde, Fujian Province. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and worked in state-owned enterprises in his early years. He went south to Dongguan Xinke Electronics for 10 years: official corporate development history of Ningde Times, public information of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Alumni Association, and documentary reports on Zeng Yuqun’s character by The Paper.
In 1999, Zeng Yuqun founded ATL in Hong Kong, overcame the problem of battery bulging, and entered the supply chain of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei: ATL official website development history, TDK acquisition announcement, and in-depth industry reports on Caijing.com.
In 2005, ATL was acquired by Japan's TDK Group: TDK official announcement, Sohu Finance, China Business Network entrepreneurship records.
In 2011, Zeng Yuqun returned to his hometown to found CATL, focusing on power batteries: the official development history of CATL, public information from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and reports from China Energy News.
In 2012, CATL became BMW's first Chinese power battery supplier: official cooperation announcement, information disclosed by BMW Brilliance, and Autohome industry reports.
CATL was listed in 2018, with a market value exceeding 1.6 trillion yuan: listing announcement, daily economic news, and People's Daily Online financial reports.
Zeng Yuqun has donated a total of over 3.4 billion yuan to support education and scientific research: official donation announcement, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Foundation disclosure, The Paper public welfare report.
CATL ranks first in global power battery shipments for many consecutive years: SNE Research statistics, annual financial reports, and China Business News industry reports.
Layout of the entire industry chain including sodium-ion batteries, Kirin batteries, energy storage, and recycling: official technology conferences, financial report information, and special reports in China Energy News.
[1] CATL official website, www.catl.com
[2] "Zeng Yuqun: In-depth analysis of industries related to CATL", CATL New Energy Technology Annual Report
[3] Compilation of Zeng Yuqun’s public speeches and media interviews
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