Terry Gou

His parents lived in mainland China's Shanxi Province before the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan in 1949.

His father was a policeman who fought on behalf of the Kuomintang during the war.

As the second child of his family, Gou received education from elementary school to post college.

After graduation, he continued to work in a rubber factory, working at a grinding wheel, and medicine plant until the age of 24.

Gou has an older sister and two younger brothers, Gou Tai-chiang and Tony Gou, who have both become successful businesspeople as well.

Gou fulfilled his national service obligations by joining the Republic of China Air Force as an anti-aircraft artillery officer.

As part of the airforce, he was stationed in Kinmen at a time when a potential People's Liberation Army invasion of the island as a stepping stone to invade Taiwan was a real fear.

Terry Gou (born 18 October 1950) is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and politician.

Gou is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics.

Gou first joined the Kuomintang in 1970, but allowed his membership to lapse after 2000.

He would be discharged in 1973.

Founded in 1974, Foxconn grew to become an international business empire, becoming the largest private employer and exporter in mainland China with a workforce of 1.2 million.

As of 2022, Gou had a net worth of US$6.8 billion.

Terry Gou founded Foxconn, established as Hon Hai Precision Industry (鴻海科技集團) in Taiwan in 1974 with $7,500 ($44,000 in 2021 US dollars) in startup money and a workforce of ten elderly employees.

The company started off making plastic parts for television sets in a rented shed in Tucheng, a suburb of Taipei.

A turning point came in 1980 when he received an order from Atari to make the console joystick.

Gou expanded his business in the 1980s by embarking on an 11-month trip across the US in search of customers.

An aggressive salesman, Gou arrived uninvited at many companies' headquarters; often, he won orders despite security being called on him.

In 1988, Gou opened his first factory in Shenzhen where his largest factory remains today.

Giu scaled up production by intergrating vertically the assembly process and facilities for workers.

The manufacturing site became a campus that included housing, dining, medical care and burial for the workers, and even chicken farming to supply the cafeteria.

In 1996, Hon Hai started building chassis for Compaq desktops.

This was a breakthrough moment that led to building the bare bones chassis for other high-profile customers, including HP, IBM, and Apple.

Within just a few years, Foxconn grew into a consumer electronics giant.

In the 2012 Taiwan presidential election, Gou endorsed Ma Ying-jeou, stating that Ma was an "experienced, outstanding helmsman."

Beginning in 2016, speculation surrounding Gou's political ambitions arose ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Gou is also the main owner of HMD Global, which is a company founded in 2016 to sell Nokia branded phones.

HMD buys the R&D, manufacturing and distribution from FIH Ltd, which is part of Hon Hai group.

In April 2021, Gou became the biggest shareholder in the biotech company Eirgenix.

In December 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that a letter from Gou helped convince the Chinese government to ease Zero-COVID restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, Gou resigned from Foxconn and joined the Kuomintang (KMT) to run for president, declaring he was instructed by the sea goddess Mazu in a dream to contest the election.

Gou ultimately lost the election, coming in second in the Kuomintang primary.

After leaving the party following the 2019 primary, Gou rejoined in 2023 and announced his intention to run for president in the 2024 presidential election, but after running as an independent candidate, he ended his campaign in late November 2023.

Once described as an "old friend" by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Gou has been characterized as friendly to Mainland business interests during his political and business career.

In December 2022, Gou was credited with helping to successfully lobby the Xi Jinping Administration to ease zero-COVID rules implemented during the pandemic.

On foreign policy, Gou has criticized the Taiwan independence movement and has called for a deescalation of Sino–American tensions.

Owing to his business background and image as a political outsider, Gou has been compared in international media to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Gou was born in Banqiao Township, Taipei County (now Banqiao District, New Taipei).

In 2019, Gou argued that Apple should move its manufacturing out of mainland China to Taiwan.

The comments came after he confirmed he will step down from his role as Foxconn chairman.