Lv is a director of BYD, a Chinese maker of electric cars. The Shenzhen-based company received backing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and reported revenue of 777 billion yuan ($108 billion) in 2024. Aside from cars and buses, it also makes rechargeable and nickel-cadmium batteries for use in mobile phones.
The majority of Lv's fortune is derived from his 22% stake in BYD, a publicly traded maker of batteries and automobiles in Shenzhen.
Lv owns the stake directly and through Youngy Investment, according to the 2025 third-quarter report. About 13% of his stake is pledged and removed from the net worth calculation.
He also holds a 26% stake in Youngy Co. and a 15% stake in Youngy Health, according to company filings.
The billionaire's cash and other investments are based on an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
Li Qian, a spokesperson for the company, didn't respond to a request for comment on the net worth calculation.
Born in 1962 in Anhui, central China, Lv is the elder cousin of Wang Chuan-fu, chairman of BYD. Lv started his career working in a China Central Bank unit in Anhui and later co-founded BYD with Wang in February 1995, according to the company's 2020 annual report.
The company was making lithium-ion batteries for handsets by 1997, and later expanded to cars, joining billionaire Li Shufu's Geely Automobile Holdings as one of country's first non-state owned electric carmakers.
BYD began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2002. It attracted the attention of billionaire investor Warren Buffett who bought a stake through a unit of Berkshire Hathaway in 2008.
The company has benefited from some of the Chinese government's air pollution policies, including mandates that electric cars make up a certain amount of state vehicle purchases.