Terry Gou facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Terry Gou
郭台銘
Gou in 2019
Born	(1950-10-18) 18 October 1950 (age 74) Banqiao, Taipei County, Taiwan
Education	Taipei University of Marine Technology (BS)
Years active	1974–present
Known for	Founder of Foxconn
Political party	Kuomintang (1970–2000; 2019) Independent (2000–2019; 2019–)
Spouse(s)	Serena Lin ​ ​ (m. 1974; died 2005)​ Delia Tseng ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	5
Relatives	Sophie Chang (cousin)

Terry Gou (Chinese: 郭台銘; pinyin: Guō Táimíng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Koeh Tâi-bêng; born October 18, 1950) is a very successful businessman and politician from Taiwan. He is a billionaire, meaning he has more than a billion US dollars. Terry Gou is famous for starting and leading Foxconn. This company is the world's biggest maker of electronics for other companies.

Foxconn began in 1974 and grew into a huge international business. It became the largest private employer and exporter in mainland China, with over 1.2 million workers. In 2024, Terry Gou's wealth was about $10.4 billion.

Around 2016, people started wondering if Gou would run for president in Taiwan. In 2019, he left his job at Foxconn and joined a political party called the Kuomintang (KMT). He said a sea goddess named Mazu told him in a dream to run for president. He ran in the 2020 election but did not win his party's nomination.

After leaving the party, he rejoined in 2023. He then announced he wanted to run for president in the 2024 election as an independent candidate. However, he stopped his campaign in November 2023.

Terry Gou has been called an "old friend" by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He is known for supporting business connections with mainland China. In 2022, he helped convince the Chinese government to relax strict rules put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes Taiwan should not seek full independence. He also wants to reduce tensions between China and the United States. Because of his business background, some people compare him to former U.S. president Donald Trump.

Early Life and Education

Terry Gou was born in Banqiao, which is now part of New Taipei City in Taiwan. His parents came from Shanxi Province in mainland China. They moved to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War. His father was a policeman who fought for the Kuomintang party during the war.

Terry Gou was the second of four children. He went to school from elementary to college. Before starting his own company, he worked in a rubber factory and a medicine plant until he was 24. His older sister and two younger brothers, Gou Tai-chiang and Tony Gou, also became successful in business.

Gou served in the military, which is required in Taiwan. He joined the Republic of China Air Force as an anti-aircraft officer. He was stationed in Kinmen, a place where people worried about an invasion. He left the military in 1973.

Foxconn: A Global Giant

Gou with Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in 2011

Speaker Paul Ryan, President Donald Trump, Governor Scott Walker, Terry Gou and Christopher Murdock at Foxconn's June 2018 groundbreaking ceremony in Wisconsin

Terry Gou started Foxconn in Taiwan in 1974. It was first called Hon Hai Precision Industry. He began with $7,500 and ten older employees. The company started by making plastic parts for television sets in a small rented building. A big moment came in 1980 when Atari asked them to make joysticks for their game consoles.

In the 1980s, Gou traveled for 11 months across the United States. He was looking for new customers. He was a very determined salesman. He would often visit companies without an invitation, and sometimes even security was called. But he often managed to get orders anyway.

In 1988, Gou opened his first factory in Shenzhen, China. This factory is still his largest today. He made the production process very efficient by doing everything in one place. The factory became like a small city, with housing, dining, medical care, and even chicken farms for the workers.

In 1996, Hon Hai started building computer cases for Compaq. This was a major step. Soon, they were building parts for other big companies like HP, IBM, and Apple. In just a few years, Foxconn became a huge company making electronics for people all over the world.

Other Business Ventures

In 2019, Terry Gou suggested that Apple should move its manufacturing from mainland China to Taiwan. This happened after he said he would step down as Foxconn chairman.

Gou is also the main owner of HMD Global. This company was started in 2016 to sell Nokia brand phones. HMD Global gets its research, manufacturing, and distribution from a part of the Hon Hai group.

In April 2021, Gou became the biggest shareholder in a biotech company called Eirgenix. In December 2022, it was reported that a letter from Gou helped convince the Chinese government to ease its strict "Zero-COVID" rules during the pandemic.

Political Career

Terry Gou first joined the Kuomintang political party in 1970. He stopped being a member after 2000 but rejoined in 2019. In the 2012 presidential election in Taiwan, Gou supported Ma Ying-jeou. He said Ma was a very good leader.

Political Views

Gou does not support the Taiwan independence movement. This movement wants Taiwan to be completely separate from China. Gou believes that Taiwan independence is not the right path. He supports the 1992 Consensus, which is an agreement about "one China." He has criticized another political party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), for how they talk about this issue.

In 2019, Gou shared his concerns about legalizing same-sex marriage in Taiwan. He felt that the lawmakers did not respect the results of a 2018 vote where most people voted against legalization.

2020 Presidential Election

From 2016, many people thought Terry Gou might run for president in 2020. He rejoined the Kuomintang party in April 2019. On April 17, 2019, Gou announced he would try to become the Kuomintang's candidate for the 2020 Taiwan presidential election.

Gou said that the sea goddess Mazu told him in a dream to run for president. He came in second place in the Kuomintang's primary election, getting 27.7% of the votes. On September 12, 2019, Gou announced he was leaving the Kuomintang party. Four days later, he said he would not run in the 2020 presidential election as an independent candidate.

2024 Presidential Election

In April 2023, Gou announced he would run for President in the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election. Early polls showed him in second place among potential candidates. On August 28, he officially declared his independent presidential campaign. Foxconn announced on September 2 that Gou had left its board of directors for personal reasons.

On September 14, 2023, Gou announced that actress and writer Lai Pei-hsia [zh] would be his running mate.

Gou officially qualified for the presidential election on November 14, 2023. This happened after the signatures he collected were approved. However, on November 24, 2023, he announced he was dropping out of the race. His name did not appear on the ballot.

Personal Life

Terry Gou and his first wife, Serena Lin (1950–2005), had a son and a daughter. His son works in movies and real estate, and his daughter worked in finance. In 2000, Gou started an educational charity with Lin. He planned to give away one-third of his wealth to charity. After his wife passed away, his daughter took over leading the charity.

In 2002, he bought a castle called Roztěž [cs] near Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic for $30 million.

In 2005, Serena Lin died from breast cancer at age 55. Gou's younger brother, Tony Gou, passed away in 2007 from leukemia. Terry Gou married his second wife, choreographer Delia Tseng [zh] (born 1974), on July 26, 2008. Tseng and Gou have three children together. They have decided to give away 90% of Gou's wealth to help others.

Wealth

In 2016, Terry Gou's wealth was about US$5.6 billion. By August 2017, Forbes magazine listed his wealth at US$10.6 billion. As of 2022, Gou had a net worth of $6.8 billion, making him the sixth wealthiest person in Taiwan.

See also

In Spanish: Terry Gou Tai Ming para niños