That is Elon Musk in the left and Tim Cook on the right, but who is seated in the middle?
She is Zhou Qunfei.
Touch your phone screen right now.
That glass was probably made by Zhou Qunfei’s Lens Technology.
She dropped out at 16, polished watch lenses for under a dollar a day, and wrote a resignation letter so honest about the problems yet grateful for the chance that her boss promoted her instead.
At 22 she started a tiny workshop with $3,000 and family in a small apartment. She kept learning and mastering advanced glass techniques.
She solved Motorola’s “impossible” shatterproof glass problem. Supplied the first iPhone. Built a company with 75,000+ employees making over a billion screens a year for Apple, Samsung, Huawei, and Tesla.
She still walks the factory floor.
A few weeks ago she sat between Elon Musk and Tim Cook at a Beijing state banquet.
Zhou Qunfei today is known as China’s “Glass Queen.”
She is the founder and chairwoman of Lens Technology, the company whose advanced glass and components are used in iPhones, Samsung devices, Huawei phones, Tesla vehicles, and an expanding range of electric cars, humanoid robots, AI hardware, and aerospace products.
As of late May 2026, her net worth is estimated at $19.7–20.3 billion (Forbes and Bloomberg), making her one of the richest self-made women in the world and among the wealthiest women in China. Her wealth comes mainly from her controlling stake in Lens Technology, whose market value has recently been around $26 billion.
From a dollar a day to that table through relentless learning, honest communication, staying close to the work, and doing what others said couldn’t be done.
She didn’t wait to be invited. She made herself impossible to ignore.