John Tu

Net Worth: $17.4 Billion

Chinese Name: 杜纪川

Ancestral Home: Zhejiang

Age: 84

Nationality: American

Main Industries: Computer Hardware, Technology

Co-founder, President and CEO of Kingston Technology, which he started with David Sun in 1987 after the pair lost their first fortune in the stock market crash. Born in Chongqing, China in 1941, Tu grew up in Taiwan, studied electrical engineering in Germany, and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1970s, where he ran a gift shop and sold real estate before entering the tech industry. Kingston, named after his favorite band the Kingston Trio, became the world's biggest independent memory maker. In 1996, he and Sun sold 80% of the company to SoftBank for $1.5 billion and famously distributed $100 million of the proceeds as bonuses to employees before buying the stake back for $450 million in 1999. He controls a 50% stake in the closely held company.