Biing-seng Wu and Jordan Wu have achieved billionaire status through their company Himax Technologies Inc., which specializes in display driver integrated circuits. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the brothers own 24% of Himax, whose US-listed shares have more than doubled in value this year. Their combined stake in the Tainan, Taiwan-based firm, along with dividends and stock sales proceeds, gives them a combined $1.3 billion net worth. This marks the first time the brothers have been valued by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The wealth marks a big milestone for the siblings and their company, which says it holds a 40% market share for display chips used in cars, serving major automotive manufacturers including Ferrari NV, Volkswagen AG, and Porsche.
Himax holds a 40% market share for display chips used in cars, serving major automotive manufacturers including Ferrari NV, Volkswagen AG, and Porsche. As reported by Bloomberg Intelligence, these chips are essential for enabling pixels on flat-screen displays to light up properly. The company's products can be found in everything from Lamborghinis to smartwatches. Charles Shum, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, noted that while these chips don't grab headlines like AI processors, without them, users would be staring at blank screens. "It's not the kind of chip that grabs headlines the way an AI processor does," Shum said. "But without it, you'd be staring at a blank screen."
In a rare 2022 interview with a Taiwanese news outlet, Jordan Wu revealed that Himax made a strategic bet on car display chips about two decades earlier, even when few automobiles had screens and the company's resources were limited. According to Himax spokeswoman Karen Tiao, these early investments helped the company build a competitive edge. The company is currently betting on smart glasses, AI, and co-packaged optics - technology that could help data centers handle increasing bandwidth demand while consuming less power. Today, "there are very few automakers that don't use our products in some form," Jordan said, calling it "nothing short of a miracle." Those early investments helped Himax build a competitive edge, Tiao said in a text message. The company's current bet on smart glasses, AI and co-packaged optics is an extension of that strategy.
Himax was founded in 2001 by the brothers using their own money before securing venture capital. The company has grown to employ 2,200 people, with more than 90% being engineers. In 2005, Jordan took over as chief executive while Biing-seng served as chairman. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2006, raising $468 million. In 2013, Alphabet Inc. (then Google) acquired a 6% stake in its subsidiary Himax Display Inc.. The company operates as a fabless company, meaning it outsources manufacturing of its chips while maintaining offices in Taiwan, China, South Korea, and the US. In a 2022 speech at his alma mater, Biing-seng, who remains Himax's chairman, shared some of the secrets of his success: "Learning is the most important thing. Sleep well. Maintain good physical strength. Wait for the right opportunity to start a business. Seek advice from experts."
The brothers' achievement reflects Taiwan's broader tech boom, with the number of billionaires in Taiwan rising 9% to 51 last year, according to the UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report 2025. This surpasses Japan's 41 billionaires and South Korea's 31 billionaires. Biing-seng Wu, 69, holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University and served at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, where he led Taiwan's early efforts to develop TFT-LCDs. Jordan Wu, 66, has an MBA from the University of Rochester and worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and Barclays Plc before entering the tech sector. The brothers' success demonstrates how Taiwan has become a tech powerhouse during an industry boom.
