ByteDance’s AI push makes Chinese tycoon one of Asia’s richest women

BEIJING - Entrepreneur Zhou Chaonan has become one of just three Chinese women billionaires in the ranks of the world’s 500 richest people, propelled into the rarefied club by the rise of TikTok owner ByteDance and the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

The 64-year-old is the founder of data centre operator Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group, which provides the computing power enabling the AI ambitions of its main client, ByteDance.

Range Intelligent’s stock rose 105 per cent in 2024, giving Ms Zhou a net worth of US$7.7 billion (S$10.5 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is valuing her for the first time. Ms Zhou is the chairwoman of the firm.

Her ascent comes as Chinese billionaires slowly recover their wealth after three years of losses from a property crisis and President Xi Jinping’s push for common prosperity at the expense of powerful private business owners.

Ms Zhou and Range Intelligent did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment. 

Range Intelligent’s performance has been boosted by the Chinese government’s supportive policy on AI infrastructure, as the nation looks to become a global leader in the field and challenge the US.

In December 2024, the company’s shares rose along with a group of Chinese computing stocks after Premier Li Qiang urged innovation and infrastructure development in the sector, signalling more policy support for AI services.

Still, US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration may introduce more export restrictions on AI chip supplies, as it looks to shore up American prowess and manufacturing. 

“The real challenge for a company like Range Intelligent and other data centre companies is access to the AI chips from Nvidia, AMD and others that are under the export controls,” said data centre analyst Matt Kimball from Moor Insights and Strategy.

“I expect the Trump administration to further tighten these controls by closing loopholes and addressing the grey markets that have been used to get around these controls.” 

Based in the city of Langfang near Beijing, Range Intelligent’s other big clients include Meituan, JD.com, Huawei Technologies and state-owned information centres. The company has 61 data centres with over 320,000 server racks in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according to its 2024 report.

It reported revenue of 3.6 billion yuan (S$671 million) in the first half of 2024, a 112 per cent jump from a year earlier. 

‘Surpassing males’

The expectations for Ms Zhou were always high. Her given name, Chaonan, translates into “surpassing males” and was inspired by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s quote: “Women can hold up half the sky.”

As one of the first batch of college graduates following China’s Cultural Revolution, which led to the suspension of university enrolments, she was assigned a teaching role at the commerce bureau in the city of Hengyang in Hunan province.

She then worked for 10 years at a local oil and grain transfer station, and as a manager at a province-owned merchant company from 1994 to 2000.

In 2000, at the age of 40, Ms Zhou founded her first company. The Beijing-based Tiantong Communication Network provides mobile telecommunication networks and counts telecom giant China Mobile as one of its clients, according to a May 2022 filing.

Ms Zhou still directly controls the company after a spin-off, according to the filing. 

She pivoted to data centres in 2009 when she founded her second company, Range Technology Development.

In 2022, when the industry received a boost after being cited as a national priority as part of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, she seized the opportunity and took the company public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange through a Spac listing. The process involved a restructuring that incorporated Range Technology Development as a unit of Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group. 

Price cutting

ByteDance has made catching up in AI a priority, releasing its AI bot Doubao in 2024 with ultra-low pricing. The company said the cost of its AI services is 99 per cent lower than Chinese industry norms as it competes on price with the likes of Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu, which are also slashing the amount charged to woo customers.

With companies around the world zeroing in on AI, global demand for data centre capacity may more than triple by 2030, according to McKinsey research, which said there is a supply deficit.

As cost-cutting becomes a key in the tech giants’ AI race, third-party providers like Range Intelligent offer a cheaper alternative than building services in-house, according to the research. 

TikTok’s looming US ban, which requires Bytedance to divest the social media platform by Jan 19, may not be a direct threat to Range Intelligent, Mr Kimball said.

“The perceived importance of natively developed AI infrastructure from the Chinese government tells me that appropriate investments will be made in the company, either directly or indirectly,” said Mr Kimball. BLOOMBERG