Singapore's Richest 2021: Meet 3 New Entrants on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List

All the details on the three new additions—David Chen, Shi Xu and Yao Hsiao Tung—from Singapore to Forbes prestigious list of the world’s richest this year

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was an incredible year for the wealthiest in the world. In fact, there was a five trillion dollar surge in wealth and an addition of 493 new billionaires into Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest.

Out of these 493 new additions, we have three Singaporeans who have been placed on this list this round. These Singaporeans are David Chen, Shi Xu and Yao Hsiao Tung.

We take a look at these individuals and how they have worked their way into this prestigious list.

Above David Chen (Image: SEA)

1. David Chen

David Chen is the cofounder of Singapore based gaming and e-commerce firm, Sea. The company is best known for its wildly popular mobile game, Free Fire, which is a battle royale game. It was also the most downloaded mobile game globally in 2019.

Chen founded Sea in 2009 with Forrest Li and Gang Ye who are both also billionaires.

Currently, Chen is the Chief Product Officer of Shopee, the e-commerce unit of the NYSE-listed company. He has also worked heavily with PSA Corp which is a Temasek-owned port operator as a computer engineer.

Chen ranks 1299 on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest with a net worth of $2.4 billion dollars.

Above Dr Shi Xu (Image: Nonofilm Technologies)

2. Dr Shi Xu

In 1999, Dr Shi Xu and his wife founded Nanofilm Technologies International with US$300,000. 30 years later and Xu has become a billionaire thanks to his company. Most recently, his wife made the news for acquiring an exclusive Good Class Bungalow in Nassim Road.

Nanofilm Technologies International is a company that provides nanotechnology solutions for smartphones and other electronic devices. It started out as a tech start-up from Nanyang Technological University. At that point, Xu was working as an associate professor. When Hitachi reached out wanting to adopt Xu's coating technology for its hard-disk drives, NTU decided to create a company to sell this technology with Xu at the head of it.

Today, Nanofilm has expanded into countries such as Japan, China, Vietnam and Singapore. It has more than 1,400 employees internationally and continues to grow as it works with mega clients such as Fuji Xerox, Microsoft and Huawei Technologies.

Xu ranks 2263 on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest with a net worth of $1.3 billion dollars.

Above Yao Hsiao Tung (Image: Hi-P International)

3. Yao Hsiao Tung

In 1983, Yao Hsiao Tung acquired Hi-P International which specialises in insert molding and making metal forming tools. At that point, it was a small company.

Today, Yao has taken the company up to become Singapore's largest manufacturer of smartphones, tablet computers and consumer electronics. His company works with clients such as Apple.

Yao ranks 2674 on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest with a net worth of $1 billion dollars.

Topics

Forbes Billionaire Singapore David Chen Yao Hsiao Tung Shi Xu Nonofilm Technologies SEA Hi-P International World's Richest

Tatler Asia

Singapore's Richest 2021: Meet 3 New Entrants on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List

1. David Chen

2. Dr Shi Xu

3. Yao Hsiao Tung