One of the richest people in the world, SenseTime Group co-founder, Tang Xiao’ou, is now worth nearly $4 billion and used to be a professor.
The Chinese AI company went public in Hong Kong and shares of the stock climbed by up to 23%.
Tang is a former information engineering professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and helped found the facial-recognition software company with Xu Li, the CEO of SenseTime. Tang received his masters degree from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He saw his wealth gain by $300 million to an estimated $3.7 billion after the company’s shares rose by 7.3% after its IPO price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
While $3.7 billion is nothing to sneeze at, it wouldn’t be enough to get Tang into the top 300 on the Forbes list of the richest people in America. He would likely fit into that list just below financier Michael Milken ($3.8 billion), the junk bond king who pleaded guilty to violating securities laws and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.
SenseTime was forced to delay its IPO and price it much lower after the U.S. Treasury department stopped American investors from purchasing shares earlier this month.
“Every company will have their own challenges and objectives. For us, it’s about getting back on the front foot as creators and pioneers,” said Xu during the ceremony attended by Paul Chan, the financial secretary of Hong Kong.
