Ryan Knudson

I'm Ryan Knudsen.

It's Friday, March 20th.

Coming up, another story from our investigation into the fertility industry.

Today, one dad, 100 babies.

In many countries around the world, surrogacy is illegal.

So international parents looking to have a baby this way often head to the U.S.,

These days, about 40% of U.S.

surrogacies are for parents from abroad.

And about 40% of those parents come from just one country, China.

That's Nathan Zhang.

He runs a business that helps Chinese parents access the U.S.

fertility industry, which many consider to be the best in the world.

Nathan's business is basically a concierge service.

He hooks Chinese customers up with IVF clinics, egg donors, sperm banks, surrogacy agencies, and lawyers.

When he got into the industry about 15 years ago, Nathan says he catered to a pretty niche demographic, rich Chinese business people who'd tried having kids the traditional way and failed.

But more recently, he told me, his customer base has expanded.

He sees more gay couples now, more single women, and more wealthy clients looking to build big families.

So our colleagues have been reporting on this trend of Chinese customers, often who are very rich, who want lots of babies.

Have you seen that in your business?

Nathan says that while traditional Chinese culture might be a motivation for some of his clients, he suspects that some of his wealthiest customers are taking their cues from someone else, the wealthiest man in the world.