Filipino tech billionaire Dado Banatao: From farm boy to tech titan, a rags-to-riches story in Silicon Valley

INNOVATOR: Silicon Valley is the world's innovation hub, a place synonymous with the latest in tech. One of its best minds is a Filipino-American engineer Diosdado “Dado” Banatao. Every personal computer (PC) we see today has two things that can be credited to him: the PC chip set and the graphics accelerator chip. But the man whose intellect has contributed what makes every single PC work started in a humble home in northern Philippines , in a pastoral province known as Cagayan Valley.

RAGS-TO-RICHES: Diosdado Banatao is a rags-to-riches story. As a child of a farmer and a housekeeper, he walked on dirt roads without shoes to attend primary school in the small town in Cagayan Valley, a province in north of Luzon island.

FROM FARM BOY TO TECH BILLIONAIRE: Banatao was born in a small barrio of Malabbac in the town of Iguig, Cagayan, Philippines, on May 23, 1946. He went to a Jesuit-run high school, Ateneo de Tuguegarao. “My education with the Jesuits taught me critical thinking. I was no one really special, but I was determined,” Banatao said in one of his interviews.

ENGINEERING: Dado Banatao (left) credits his father Salvador Banatao, a farmer, for taking the cudgels for his children’s education. Banatao completed his Bachelor of Science of Electric Engineering degree from Mapua Institute of Engineering (Manila), graduated cum laude.

WORKED FOR BOEING: After graduating from Mapua, he joined the Philippine Airlines as a trainee pilot and later moved to Boeing. He worked as a design engineer for the airframer’s commercial airline division.

MEETING WITH STEVE AND WOZ: While working for Boeing, Banatao took up his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University. He later worked with a number of tech companies. Banatao also joined the Homebrew Computer Club, where he met Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

REWARD FOR HARD WORK: Banatao took his Master's degree in Engineering at Stanford University while working for Boeing. "Success in business, technology or other fields depend more on hard work rather than on brains alone. In terms of absolute brilliance, I’m way below the curve. In fact here at Silicon Valley, I envy all the smart people. I really believe it is the effort and hard work that matter more than pure brilliance," Banatao told an interview in 2018.

FORTUNE FROM SEMICONDUCTORS: Banatao, now 75, whose net worth is estimated at $5 billion, built his personal fortune as a Silicon Valley pioneer, having created and patented semiconductors that continue to be the foundation for today’s computers.

MASTER OF COMPUTER CHIPS: After finishing his master's degree at Stanford, Banatao worked with different technology companies such as the National Semiconductor, Intersil, and Commodore International where he designed the first single-chip, 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator.

BREAKTHROUGH DESIGNS: In 1981, he developed the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and transceiver chip while working in Seeq Technology. In 1984, Banatao and his business partner Francis Siu, founded a high-tech company, Moston, starting with a capital of $500,000. Mostron was launched as a manufacturer of motherboards. They also hired Ron Yara of Intel as a company executive.

FIVE-CHIP SET: After he developed a five-chip set, Banatao co-founded Chips and Technologies in 1985. The company developed system logic chip set for IBM's PC-XT and the PC-AT. The company earned $12 million in its first four months. After 22 months, the company went public. 

SHRINKING CHIPS: CMOS circuits are found in several types of electronic components, including microprocessors, batteries, and digital camera image sensors. Using very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, Banatao has found ways to reduce super-computing capacity to fewer, cheaper processors. Banatao was also credited for the first system logic chip set for IBM's PC-XT and the PC-AT, the local bus concept and the first Windows Graphics accelerator chip for personal computers.

BENEVOLENT DISRUPTOR: Banatao devised more efficient ways to link computers, by simplifying the computer design with fewer chips, thus making computers smaller, more portable and affordable. “I just thought I can redesign this with a few chips. Out of 150 or so, just five chips. That was the entire PC,” Banatao told a Filipino TV channel ANC.

COMPUTERS: Banatao’s innovations are still used in up to 30% of today’s desktop and laptop computers. Besides the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS MAC, his other contributions to the modern computer industry include the Physical Layer (PHY) Chip.

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR: Banatao is recognised for being a tech entrepreneur. Banatao is a three-time start-up veteran, having co-founded Mostron, Chips and Technologies, and S3 Graphics. He received the Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young, Inc. Magazine, and Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services in 1997.

FABLESS: Chips and Technologies (C&T), founded in Milpitas, California in December 1984 by Banatao and Gordon A. Campbell, was an early fabless semiconductor company. Its first product, announced September 1985, was a four-chip EGA package that handled the functions of 19 of IBM's proprietary chips on the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA).

ACQUIRED BY INTEL: When COMDEX was held in November 1985, several companies had introduced EGA-compatible boards based on C&T’s chipset. In 1997, Intel acquired C&T, primarily for its graphics chip business.

COMPETITION: Success didn’t come on a silver platter. Banatao has said Silicon Valley is a sink-or-swim kind of ecosystem, where competition is unforgiving. Faced by challenges from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and Nvidia, S3 Graphics merged with hardware manufacturer Diamond Multimedia in 1999. The S3 Graphics portion was later transferred into part of VIA technologies and is now S3 Graphics. On June 12, 2012, HTC purchased the majority shares of S3 Graphics from VIA technologies to acquire S3 Graphics and its patents.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS: S3 Graphics, Ltd, was a Fremont, California-based computer graphics and video solutions company founded by Banatao in 1989. The company sold the Trio, ViRGE, Savage 3D, and Chrome series of graphics processors.

CHARITY AND EDUCATION WORK: Today, Banatao’s net worth reportedly stands at about $5 billion. He is managing partner of Tallwood Venture Capital, which invests in start-ups. He also uses his experience, influence and resources to break the cycle of poverty in his native Philippines through technology. Forbes Asia lists Banatao as of the region’s 40 most noteworthy givers, for having compiled a long record of supporting worthy causes.

BILL GATES OF THE PHILIPPINES: Banatao is also known as the “Bill Gates of the Philippines”. One of his charity works involves enhancing science education for the underprivileged in the Philippines. According to Silicon Valley yarn, Banatao met future Apple CEO Steve Jobs during his time as a member of the Homebrew Computer Club in the 70’s.

FOUNDATION: Each year, the Dado Banatao Educational Foundation awards five scholarships to Filipino students who pursue engineering and technology. Also, with Philippine Development Foundation which he chairs, Banatao is helping send brilliant young Filipinos to school to help them reach their full potential. PhilDev was spun off from Ayala Foundation's programme. 

CHARITY WORK IN THE US: Through his Banatao Filipino American Fund, he assists Californian high school students of Filipino heritage who are pursuing a college education in engineering. He also built a computer centrE at his grade school in his childhood town of Iguig in Cagayan Valley, making it the only public school with the most modern computer network in the Philippines.