China richest woman Zhou Qunfei rose from teenage factory shifts to glass empire powering Apple Tesla and Musk

She left school at 15 and now boards global tech

Zhou Qunfei, China’s richest woman, went from rural Hunan factory shifts after leaving school at 15 to building Lens Technology, a precision manufacturing powerhouse. From a risky glass-screen printing workshop in 1993, her company grew into a critical supplier for Apple and later expanded its materials expertise into electric vehicles, AI hardware, smart cockpit systems, robotics and even aerospace-linked applications. A state banquet seat between Tim Cook and Elon Musk underscored how manufacturing giants now shape global tech supply chains.