DeepCtrls CEO Dr. Li Hui Named a 2025 Forbes China ESG Impact Business Leader

Background and Industry Context

Forbes China recently announced its 2025 ESG Impact Business Leaders selection. Li Hui, Founder and CEO of DeepCtrls, was recognized for his contributions to AI-powered optimization of industrial energy systems, low-carbon technology innovation, and global industrial energy efficiency, representing the new energy and carbon neutrality sector.

Organized by Forbes China in collaboration with leading institutions and industry experts, the selection focused on integrating ESG principles with business value. Candidates were assessed across technological innovation, industry influence, strategic leadership, and social value creation. The resulting list recognizes entrepreneurs with global influence across new energy, advanced manufacturing, and technology innovation.

Other honorees included Zhu Yufeng, President of GCL Holdings; Zhong Baoshen, Chairman of LONGi Green Energy; Cao Renxian, Chairman of Sungrow; and Gao Haichun, Chairwoman of Trina Solar.

Against the backdrop of the global green energy transition and China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, improving efficiency in energy-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and computing infrastructure has become a shared industrial priority.

With 22 years of experience in intelligent energy optimization, Li Hui founded Deepctrls in 2018 and pioneered its Physical AI (PhyAI) approach. His work has helped industrial electromechanical energy systems advance from experience-based operation to autonomous sensing, dynamic optimization, and real-time closed-loop control.

Core Technology and Solutions

Under Li Hui’s leadership, Deepctrls has deployed Physical AI products across energy-intensive industries, including new energy, semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, and AI data centers. The company serves more than 360 leading enterprises worldwide, including NVIDIA, TSMC, CATL, and Foxconn Industrial Internet. In 2025, it helped customers save more than 900 million kWh of electricity, supporting business development and ESG performance.

To make intelligent energy optimization more widely accessible, Li Hui led the development of DeepBot, the industry’s first standardized intelligent agent product. By simplifying deployment and shortening implementation timelines, DeepBot enables more manufacturers to improve energy efficiency through AI.

Li Hui also prioritizes explainability, safety, and stability in industrial AI. By using physical principles to constrain algorithm behavior, Deepctrls provides a safe, trustworthy, and verifiable approach to industrial intelligence, avoiding opaque “black-box” control.

Recognition and Future Direction

The Forbes China recognition acknowledges both Li Hui’s technological vision and its practical industrial impact. It also highlights Deepctrls’ contribution to greener industry through the global deployment of intelligent energy optimization.

Li Hui will continue leading investment in core Physical AI technologies, advancing industrial energy systems toward L5-level autonomy, greater efficiency, and more intelligent optimization.

Industry Perspectives

During the awards event, Sun Yabin, Chief Marketing Officer of Deepctrls, joined the New Energy and Carbon Neutrality subforum. Alongside representatives from GCL Group, PwC, and SGS, he discussed international expansion, ESG governance, and green supply chain development.

Participants broadly agreed that competition in the global new energy industry is expanding beyond cost to encompass data governance, lifecycle carbon management, and international collaboration. Establishing globally aligned ESG frameworks is becoming a critical priority for Chinese new energy companies expanding overseas.