Li Xiaoming cofounded Chinese landscape design firm Hui Lyu Ecological Technology Groups almost four decades ago to build city gardens and take on ecological projects such as lake restoration. Yet it was a shrewd investment in AI that made Li a billionaire, as it sent the shares of the once struggling firm up almost 1,600% over the last two years.

The 52-year-old chairman of the Shenzhen-listed company has amassed a fortune of $2.8 billion largely based on his stake, according to Forbes estimates. Hui Lyu didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Headquartered in the central city of Wuhan, Hui Lyu has been enjoying market optimism ever since it announced a mid-2024 investment in Tri-light Wuhan Electronics Technology, a privately held company that makes AI-related components such as optical modules and transceivers. Such hardware is widely adopted in AI data centers today to facilitate faster data transmission, as the devices use light-based signals to transmit and receive data.

Hui Lyu spent 195 million yuan ($29 million) to acquire a 30% stake in Tri-light back in 2024. The landscape designer invested another 310 million yuan to boost its stake to 51% today, according to regulatory filings. It intends to acquire the remaining 49% stake through a 1.13 billion yuan cash-and-stock deal, according to a Sept 2025 filing.

The company’s shares have soared as a result. The almost 1,600% rally that started after the initial 2024 investment now gives Hui Lyu a market capitalization of almost 50 billion yuan. Investors may find more reasons for optimism amid rising demand for such products. According to Hyderabad-based market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the global market for optical transceivers will almost double to $29.3 billion in 2031 from $15.4 billion in 2026 amid the AI-induced boom.

Meanwhile, teaming up with Hui Lyu gives Tri-light the capital and resources needed for production expansion, the company’s founder Peng Kaisheng told the state-run Securities Times this February. With Hui Lyu's backing, Tri-light is now working on the second phase of a factory in Ezhou, a city about an hour’s drive away from its Wuhan headquarters.

It will be able to produce 4.5 million units of optical communication products annually once construction is completed in late 2027, according to a statement from U.S.-listed optoelectronic component maker Coherent, as reported by the Securities Times.

Hui Lyu decided to invest in the AI component maker after conducting extensive research, according to a 2024 filing explaining the company’s decision. Li worked in the Zhoushan base of the Chinese navy before setting up his own company, according to a brief introduction in the company’s annual report.

After taking the firm public again in Shenzhen in 2021—following a 2005 delisting caused by mounting losses—share prices stagnated once more as firms big and small competed for a slice of China’s fragmented landscape design market. Hui Lyu’s annual revenues dropped from 775 million yuan in 2021 to 587 million yuan in 2024. It eked out a razor-thin net profit of 65 million yuan that year, down from 80 million yuan three years prior.

But after accounting for sales from Tri-light, which is now a subsidiary, revenues were up 25.2% year-on-year to 386.6 million yuan in the first three months of 2026, according to a stock exchange filing. Net profit fell by a quarter to 14.9 million yuan from a year ago. The company said in the filing that the contraction was mostly due to foreign exchange losses and shrinking sales from its landscape design business.