By Joe Ciolli Author of the First Trade newsletter
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- This post originally appeared in the First Trade newsletter.
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The first MVP in First Trade history is Chen Tianshi, the founder and CEO of China-based AI chip startup Cambricon Technologies, which has been called China’s Nvidia by retail traders.
Cambricon (and Chen) have been major beneficiaries of China’s push to ice out Nvidia and make semiconductor chips domestically. The latest example of this came during the company’s quarterly earnings report, which saw a 14-fold revenue spike.
The report sent Cambricon shares on a tear this week, up 15% through Wednesday. Chen’s net worth rose in tandem, going from $21.7 billion last week to $24.1 billion as of Wednesday, an increase of $2.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Forbes. He currently sits as the 94th-richest person in the world.
Chen is a human face of the ongoing trade war around semi chips, and he’s poised to keep growing wealthier as long as China keeps trying to manufacture in-house.
He had a remarkable week in the market, and — as shown in the chart below — has seen his company’s fortunes brighten significantly in the past three months as Trump and Xi have battled over trade policies.
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