Meet Asia's tech billionaire Jason Chang: From semiconductor pioneer to AI-driven boom

Jason Chang and his brother Richard are dubbed "titans" of technology, Asian multi-billionaires behind the AI innovation.

The siblings, based in Singapore, are credited for transforming their family fortune built in real estate into one of the world's most important semiconductor businesses.

As of June 10, 2026, Forbes estimated their combined fortune at $22.4 billion, making them Taiwan's richest people.

Their wealth jumped by about $14.5 billion in one year, propelled by the AI-driven semiconductor boom. Jason is the elder brother; Richard is the younger sibling.

How wealthy are they?

Forbes' June 2026 Taiwan ranking put the brothers at: Jason & Richard Chang — $22.4 billion combined

That made them No. 1 in Taiwan, ahead of Yageo founder Pierre Chen and the Tsai brothers of Fubon Financial.

Forbes' individual profiles subsequently showed the fortunes differently because their stakes are attributed separately and fluctuate with market prices.

Jason's profile put his real-time fortune at about $20.4 billion, while Richard's was about $3.7 billion in late July 2026.

Those figures shouldn't simply be added to the Forbes Taiwan-list figure because billionaire estimates depend on how jointly-held assets and family holdings are attributed.

Their ages

• Jason Chang: 82, born May 1944. He is chairman of ASE Technology Holding.

• Richard Chang: 79, and vice chairman of ASE Technology Holding.

The family's unlikely beginning

The Changs were born in Shanghai, China and moved to Taiwan after the 1949 Chinese Revolution.

Their mother, Chang Yao-Hung-Ying, rebuilt the family's business in Taiwan, initially through real estate development.

That background became important to the brothers' eventual fortune: they didn't inherit a semiconductor empire—they helped create one.

Richard, in particular, saw an opportunity in electronics. In the early 1980s, the family was already successful in property, but he argued that Taiwan's emerging technology industry offered a much bigger long-term opportunity.

The big bet: chips

In 1984, Jason and Richard, together with their mother, founded Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE).

The brothers made a strategically important choice: rather than trying to design the world's most sophisticated chips, they focused on the less glamorous but indispensable business of semiconductor assembly, packaging and testing.

Every chip needs to be packaged and tested before it can become part of a phone, computer, automobile, data center or other electronic device.

That turned out to be an extraordinary bet.

Bloomberg says Jason persuaded his mother to invest in the semiconductor business in 1984. When ASE struggled during its first three years, their mother reportedly sold properties to keep the company alive.

ASE went public in Taiwan in 1989, followed by a New York listing in 2000. In 2018, ASE combined with Siliconware Precision Industries, creating ASE Technology Holding, now one of the world's dominant semiconductor assembly and testing companies.

From obscure chip supplier to AI beneficiary

This is where their story becomes particularly interesting.

The Changs did not become billionaires by betting directly on ChatGPT or building GPUs. They built the "picks and shovels" infrastructure behind semiconductor manufacturing.

ASE sits downstream from chip designers and manufacturers, providing packaging and testing services used throughout the semiconductor ecosystem.

The explosion in AI, data centers and advanced computing has dramatically increased demand for semiconductors—and consequently for sophisticated packaging and testing.

That helped propel the Changs' fortune from roughly $7.8 billion combined in 2024 to $22.4 billion in 2026, according to Forbes' respective rankings.

The other pillar: real estate

The Changs also retained their roots in property.

Jason and Richard are major investors in Sino Horizon Holdings, a Taiwan-listed real-estate developer whose principal properties are in mainland China. Forbes identifies both semiconductors and real estate as important components of their wealth.

So their fortune essentially rests on two generations of bets: from real estate to semiconductors, to advanced packaging and the AI boom.

Why their story matters

The Chang brothers are an unusually good example of how wealth can be created by identifying an essential but overlooked layer of a technology revolution.

They didn't need to invent the transistor, design the world's most famous processor or create an AI model.

They recognized that every generation of electronics would still need chips to be assembled and tested.

Their 1984 bet eventually positioned them at a critical chokepoint in the global semiconductor supply chain—and decades later, the AI boom dramatically increased the value of that position.

In one sentence: Jason and Richard Chang turned a family real-estate fortune into a semiconductor empire, and nearly four decades after their 1984 gamble, the AI boom has made the brothers Taiwan's richest people — with a combined fortune of $22.4 billion.

Jason Chang, 82, is the chairman of ASE Technology Holding, the Taiwan-based semiconductor packaging and testing giant he founded with his younger brother, Richard, in 1984.

Forbes estimates Chang’s real-time fortune at about $20.4 billion, making him one of the world’s wealthiest semiconductor entrepreneurs.

Siblings Jasons and Richard started ASE in Kaohsiung with a small workforce and built it into a global leader in semiconductor assembly, packaging and testing.

ASE has become especially important as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing increase demand for advanced packaging technologies that connect chips, chiplets and high-bandwidth memory.

The AI boom has dramatically increased the brothers' wealth.

Forbes' 2026 ranking of Taiwan's 50 richest put Jason and Richard Chang at No. 1, with combined wealth of $22.4 billion, up $14.5 billion from the previous year.

Forbes attributed much of the increase to the AI-driven semiconductor rally.

Chang's business interests extend beyond chips. He and Richard are major investors in Sino Horizon Holdings, a Taiwan-listed commercial real-estate developer with significant properties in mainland China.

Singapore connection

Chang is a Singapore citizen, according to Forbes, although he is based in Taipei. His Singapore connection has contributed to his longstanding inclusion among the city-state's wealthy business figures.

Singapore does not allow dual citizenship.

Publicly available sources, however, do not clearly substantiate the claim that he “renounced" Chinese nationality specifically to obtain or retain Singapore citizenship.

Building the next generation of AI chips

ASE is continuing to expand aggressively. In March 2026, the company broke ground on a new NT$17.8 billion high-tech facility in Kaohsiung's Nanzih Technology Industrial Park, with completion targeted for the second quarter of 2028.

The project is designed to expand advanced packaging and testing capacity for AI, high-performance computing and communications.

ASE and WUS also announced a new advanced AI packaging hub in Kaohsiung, scheduled for completion in September 2029, with more than 113,000 square meters of floor space and more than 2,000 expected jobs.

Planting 100,000 trees

Chang's business legacy also includes a sustainability push through ASE. In 2022, the company began adopting forest land in Taiwan for reforestation. In 2023, ASE expanded the program to 14.69 hectares in Nantou and Pingtung, planning to plant 31,723 seedlings toward its goal of 100,000 trees.

From a small Kaohsiung factory to a global semiconductor powerhouse, Chang's story mirrors Taiwan's transformation into one of the world's most important technology manufacturing hubs — and the AI boom is now pushing ASE into an increasingly strategic part of the chip supply chain.