Surging demand for photonic chips amid the AI optics boom has boosted the shares of Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology in China by about 780% over the past year. The stock surge has made the company's founder, chairman and CEO, Zhang Xingang, a billionaire.

The 56-year-old mogul, who is a U.S. citizen, has amassed a fortune of $1.7 billion based on his stake in the Shanghai-listed company, according to Forbes estimates. Yuanjie jumped almost to its daily trading limit of 20% on Friday, following share gains by optics peers Lumentum and Coherent in the U.S. the day before.

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment. Behind the eye-popping surge is rising demand for Yuanjie’s laser chips, which are used to transmit data in the form of light inside AI data centers.

Such photonic chips play an increasingly important role in modern data centers, as the training of AI requires better performing hardware. In early March,........

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