Chinese couple rake in $12b as Al circuit board maker's shares soar

When Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang hosted a private banquet for suppliers in Taiwan in May, the room was packed with some of the biggest names in global electronics.

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The chairmen of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Hon Hai Precision Industry were there, surrounded by a sea of local manufacturing titans.

In a group photo taken to mark the event stood a man in the back row, wearing a dark shirt, whom few would recognise: Mr Chen Tao.

That unassuming presence belies his growing influence. The 53-year-old former soldier, who once served in China’s Taklamakan Desert, has become one of the country’s richest artificial intelligence (AI) billionaires — his fortune built on the world’s insatiable demand for the technology and on a critical partnership with Nvidia.

Mr Chen is the founder and chairman of Victory Giant Technology Huizhou, which manufactures printed circuit boards (PCBs) - the intricate electronic backbone for AI servers.

As Nvidia’s graphics processing units have become the engines of the AI revolution, Victory Giant - which is based in the city of Huizhou in China’s Guangdong province, north of Hong Kong - has emerged as one of its core suppliers.

The demand has sent Victory Giant’s stock soaring, making it 2025's top performer on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, with gains of more than 530 per cent. While its valuation is 32 times estimated earnings, that is only a fraction of the 100-plus multiples seen by other local chipmakers.

The surge gives Mr Chen and his wife, Ms Liu Chunlan, a combined net worth of US$9.1 billion (S$11.8 billion) as at the Nov 25 close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This vaults them above tycoons such as Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman and Blackstone president Jon Gray.

The couple’s fortune is derived from the 27 per cent stake they hold in the company.