Fubon Group (富邦集團) founder Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才) and his family have replaced Cher Wang (王雪紅), chairwoman of smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電), as the richest person, or family, on Forbes magazine’s list of the 40 richest Taiwanese this year.
Tsai, 82, and his sons Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興) have turned Fubon Group into one of Taiwan’s most successful financial institutions, expanding from a core in non-life insurance to a brokerage-to-bank business, the magazine said.
The Tsai family saw its combined net worth increase to US$6.5 billion as of this month, up from US$6.3 billion last year, according to the New York-based business magazine.
The family, the second-richest in Taiwan last year, was tied at 146th place on Forbes’ global billionaires list, up from 156th place a year ago.
In contrast, Wang and her husband, Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦), who is president and CEO of silicon platform provider VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), saw their net worth shrink from US$6.8 billion to US$4 billion, making them Taiwan’s fourth- and the world’s 276th-richest on Forbes’ latest lists.
Want Want Group (旺旺集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) came in second on the Taiwanese list, with a fortune of US$6.2 billion. He was tied at 161st on the Forbes global list. Tsai, who ranked fourth in Taiwan and was tied at 196th worldwide last year, has seen a US$1 billion increase in his net worth over the past year.
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) was third on the Taiwanese list this year — the same as his ranking a year ago — with a net worth of US$5.5 billion.
Gou was one of only three Taiwanese billionaires to make this year’s global top-200 richest list, at 184th. He ranked 179th worldwide last year.
Rounding out Taiwan’s top-10 were Quanta Group (廣達集團) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) in fifth place; Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) co-founder Wang Yung-tsai (王永在) in sixth; Lin Yu-lin (林堉璘), one of Taiwan’s most prominent landlords, and Cheng Shin Rubber Co (正新輪胎) founder Luo Jye (羅結) and family tied in seventh; Rong San Lin (林榮三), property and media tycoon and founder of the Liberty Times and its sister paper the Taipei Times, in ninth place; and Tsai Chen-yu (蔡鎮宇), a real-estate tycoon and former vice chairman of Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控), in 10th place.
According to the Forbes list, each of the four brothers of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) — Wei Ying-chou (魏應洲), Wei Ying-heng (魏應行), Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交) — had a fortune of US$1.7 billion, putting them at joint 14th place on Taiwan’s richest list and 764th on the global list.
If their assets were combined, the Wei family would count as Taiwan’s wealthiest.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
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