Terry Gou (
Gou, 54, was ranked 176th richest on the Forbes list for last year, with assets of US$2.8 billion, while Lin Yuan Group founder Tsai, who died in September of respiratory failure at the age of 79, was ranked No. 94 last year with assets of US$4.6 billion.
Gou built his fortune after starting the company in 1974 with an investment of NT$300,000 to make plastic knobs for television sets. Now Hon Hai Precision mainly produces electrical connectors and assembles personal computers for Dell and Hewlett-Packard, and is tapping into mobile phone and flat-screen liquid-crystal-display manufacturing.
Several Taiwanese billionaires are on this year's list. They are: Formosa Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (
Evergreen Group founder Chang Yung-fa (
Asia-wide, Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of Mittal Steel Co, overtook Li Ka-shing (
Mittal, 54, had the biggest increase in personal wealth in the annual survey by Forbes, jumping to the No. 3 spot behind Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett as his fortune increased by US$18.8 billion to US$25 billion. Hong Kong's Li, 76, was 22nd with US$13 billion.
Indian-born Mittal has bought steel mills from Poland to South Africa since 2003, benefiting from soaring demand from shipyards and building sites in China. Li, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, has concentrated on expanding his mobile-phone businesses.
"It shows the rise of commodities and the fall of tech," said Manu Bhaskaran, head of economic research at Centennial Group.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
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