The Tsai family had escaped to Taiwan as part of the Kuomintang Exodus after the communists took over control of Mainland China in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War.
At age 13, Tsai was sent to the U.S. to attend the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where he played both lacrosse and football (inside linebacker) and was a member of Cleve House.
Tsai enrolled at his father's alma mater, Yale University.
He played for the Yale varsity lacrosse team for four years and has remained a supporter of the team.
1964
Joseph Tsai (born January 1964) is a Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire business magnate, lawyer, and philanthropist.
He is a cofounder and chairman of the Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba Group and owns the Brooklyn Nets of the American National Basketball Association (NBA), the New York Liberty of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League, and has interests in several other professional sports franchises.
Tsai's net worth is estimated to be US$8.1 billion.
1986
Tsai earned a B.A. in economics and East Asian studies from Yale College in 1986.
1990
In 1990, he earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was articles editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review.
1991
Tsai became a tax associate at the white-shoe law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell after graduation and was admitted as an attorney to the New York bar on 6 May 1991.
After three years at the law firm, he switched to private equity and joined Rosecliff, Inc., a small management buyout firm based in New York, as vice president and general counsel.
1995
He left for Hong Kong in 1995 to join the Swedish Wallenberg family's investment conglomerate Investor AB, where he was responsible for its Asian private equity investments.
1999
It was in this role that he first met Jack Ma in 1999 in Hangzhou after being introduced by a friend who was trying to sell his own company to Ma. Tsai was impressed with Ma's idea to create an international import and export marketplace, as well as his charismatic personality, but it was Ma's followers and their energy and enthusiasm that ultimately convinced Tsai.
Later that year he quit the $700,000-a-year job at Investor AB and offered to join Ma as a member of the founding team.
At the time each of Alibaba's 18 cofounders—of which Tsai was the only Western-educated member—accepted a salary of only $600 a year.
He served as chief operating officer, chief financial officer, executive vice chairman and founding board member.
He single-handedly established Alibaba's financial and legal structure, since no other member of the team had any experience in venture capital or law.
2013
Tsai was born in Taipei, Taiwan, to Paul C. Tsai (, d.2013), a second-generation lawyer, and Ruby Tsai.
He has three younger siblings: Eva, Vivian, and Benjamin.
He was Alibaba's executive vice chairman since May 2013 and became Chairman of the company in September 2023.
He has become the second-largest individual shareholder of Alibaba after Ma.
2015
Tsai co-owns the 15th NLL franchise, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs with Wayne Gretzky, Dustin Johnson, and Steve Nash with the team based in Las Vegas.
He is also chairman of J Tsai Sports with investments in the upstart field lacrosse league, the Premier Lacrosse League and several sports media and technology companies based in North America and Asia.
2017
He initially invested in the NBA team in October 2017, purchasing a 49% stake in the Nets from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in a deal that valued the team at $2.3 billion, with the option to buy the remaining stake of the team no later than 2021.
2018
In March 2018, Tsai joined a Michael Rubin-led group to buy the Carolina Panthers.
The bid was ultimately unsuccessful.
Tsai is also an investor in Major League Soccer franchise Los Angeles FC.
In 2022, Tsai led an investment round in Just Women's Sports, an American media company dedicated to women's sports.
He is married to Clara Ming-Hua Wu, a granddaughter of Wu San-lien, the first elected mayor of Taipei City.
Wu spent her childhood in Lawrence, Kansas and is a graduate of Lawrence High School.
Wu also graduated from Stanford University, where she studied international relations, and has an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
Tsai and Wu have three children.
They lived in Hong Kong for over a decade, though now primarily reside in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California.
2019
In September 2019, Tsai became the owner of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA and chairman of Barclays Center.
Tsai exercised that option in August 2019, and at the same time, bought the Nets' arena from Prokhorov for nearly $1 billion in a separate deal.
Tsai's ownership in the Nets includes the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League and the Nets Gaming Crew of the NBA 2K League.
In January 2019, Tsai headed a group that bought the WNBA's New York Liberty from The Madison Square Garden Company.
As a lacrosse varsity player at Yale, Tsai is also an avid supporter of the lacrosse sport.
He is the owner of the San Diego Seals, and a co-owner of the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, both of which are professional box lacrosse teams in the National Lacrosse League (NLL).
Tsai made his investment in the Premier Lacrosse League in February 2019, along with The Chernin Group and The Raine Group, helping fund the new lacrosse league founded by lacrosse player Paul Rabil and his brother Mike Rabil.
