// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's John Tu to the computer world? A key figure.
John Tu | |
|---|---|
| 杜紀川 | |
| Born | August 12, 1941 |
| Alma mater | Technical University of Darmstadt |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Co-founder of Kingston Technology |
John Tu (Chinese: 杜紀川; pinyin: Dù Jìchuān; Wade–Giles: Tu Chi-ch'uan; born August 12, 1941) is a Taiwanese-American billionaire businessman and philanthropist.[1] As of June 2026, Tu is worth over $103 billion, making him the 20th richest person in the world per Bloomberg Billionaires Index. [2] He is the co-founder of Kingston Technology.[3]
Early life and education
[edit]John Tu was born in Chongqing, China in 1941. He was the son of an official in China's Nationalist government. He moved to Shanghai with his parents in 1945, before going to Taiwan two years later as the Chinese Civil War neared the coast.[4][3][5]
Tu moved in 1960 to West Germany to study electrical engineering, and was educated at a language school in Munich. In Germany at that time, a two-year apprenticeship was required for everyone, so he worked at a shipbuilding factory. After working there for two years, he studied electrical engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany and graduated in 1970. He then went to work for Motorola in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 1971 he moved to California.[4][3]
Career
[edit]In 1982, he co-founded Camintonn with David Sun.[4] In 1986, they sold it for $6 million. They then lost most their money in the 1987 stock market crash and founded Kingston Technology later that same year.[4] In 1996, they sold 80 percent of the company to Softbank for $1.5 billion, before buying it back in 1999 for $450 million.[4][6]
Philanthropy
[edit]In 2021 Tu made a donation to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation that enabled the Pulitzer Prize-winning Storm Lake (Iowa) Times to buy its local competition and a weekly in an adjoining county.[7] He has supported Erin Gruwell's Freedom Writers and the Freedom Writers Foundation.[8] In 2011, he donated $1.2 million to give every first year medical student at UC Irvine an iPad.[9][4][10]
Personal life
[edit]He is married with two children.[4]
References
[edit]- ↑ "The My Hero Project – John Tu".
- ↑ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index- John Tu".
- 1 2 3 Rosie Murray-West (July 19, 2003). "Business profile: Yin and yang of memory". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Forbes profile: John Tu". Forbes. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
- ↑ "Kingston Technology and the power of memory". Fortune. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
- ↑ "The Billionaires Who Make Money Every Time You Buy a Phone". May 6, 2016.
- ↑ "Des Moines Register". The Des Moines Register.
- ↑ "Kingston Co-Founder Tu Freedom Writers' Benefactor". Archived from the original on November 1, 2008.
- ↑ "John and Mary Tu Foundation: Los Angeles Grants". August 23, 2022.
- ↑ "John Tu". November 5, 2021.
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- Living people
- American billionaires
- American businesspeople in the computer industry
- American electrical engineers
- American philanthropists
- Chinese emigrants to the United States
- Businesspeople from California
- People from Rolling Hills, California
- Businesspeople from Chongqing
- 1941 births
- Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni
- Chinese expatriates in Germany
- American people of Taiwanese descent
- Taiwanese business biography stubs