Cao is the chairman of Sungrow Power Supply, a solar inverter company with almost one-third of the global market. The Hefei, Anhui-based company makes inverters as well as batteries and energy storage systems. It built the world's largest inverter factory and had revenue of 24.1 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in 2021.
Cao Renxian's net worth of $7.92B can buy ...
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The majority of Renxian's fortune is derived from his stake in Sungrow Power Supply, a solar inverter manufacturer. The Hefei, China-based company built the world's largest inverter factory in 2019, according to the company website. It increased its global market share for PV inverters to 30% in 2021, according to an April 2022 report.
He owns 31% of the company directly as well as through his wife Su Lei and a holding company, according to a May 19, 2022 company filing. About 3% of his shares are pledged and removed from the calculation.
The value of his cash holdings is based on an analysis of stock dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
A spokesperson for the company didn't respond to a request for comment on the calculation.
Cao Renxian was born in July 1968. He became a professor at Hefei University of Technology in 1993 and taught at the school for about five years.
Upon learning of the poor availability of electricity in rural western China, he decided to set up Sungrow Power Supply Co. in 1997. His first customer was an engineer from the southern Xinjiang Railway, to whom he sold a solar power supply system for railway signalling equipment.
He expanded the company internationally in 2006 and it joined the Shenzhen stock exchange in 2011. By 2019, Sungrow had built the world's largest solar inverter factory.