Joseph Tsai

Joseph Tsai is born in Taipei, Taiwan.

Tsai's family escapes to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War.

Tsai attends Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, where he plays lacrosse and football.

Tsai enrolls at Yale University, playing for the varsity lacrosse team.

1986

Tsai earns a B.A. in economics and East Asian studies from Yale College.

1990

Tsai earns a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Tsai becomes a tax associate at Sullivan & Cromwell after graduation.

Tsai joins Rosecliff, Inc., a small management buyout firm, as vice president and general counsel.

1995

Tsai moves to Hong Kong to join Investor AB, responsible for Asian private equity investments.

1999

Tsai meets Jack Ma and joins Alibaba as a founding member.

Tsai serves as chief operating officer, chief financial officer, executive vice chairman, and founding board member of Alibaba.

Tsai establishes Alibaba's financial and legal structure.

2013

Tsai becomes executive vice chairman of Alibaba.

2023

Tsai becomes chairman of Alibaba.

Tsai becomes the second-largest individual shareholder of Alibaba after Ma.

2017

Tsai initially invests in the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, purchasing a 49% stake.

2019

Tsai exercises the option to buy the remaining stake in the Brooklyn Nets.

Tsai also owns the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League and the Nets Gaming Crew of the NBA 2K League.

2019

Tsai buys the WNBA's New York Liberty.

Tsai becomes the owner of the San Diego Seals and co-owner of the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the National Lacrosse League.

Tsai co-owns the 15th NLL franchise, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, with Wayne Gretzky, Dustin Johnson, and Steve Nash.

Tsai becomes chairman of J Tsai Sports with investments in the Premier Lacrosse League and several sports media and technology companies.

Tsai invests in Major League Soccer franchise Los Angeles FC.

Tsai leads an investment round in Just Women's Sports, an American media company dedicated to women's sports.

Tsai marries Clara Ming-Hua Wu, granddaughter of Wu San-lien, the first elected mayor of Taipei City.

Tsai and Wu have three children.

Tsai primarily resides in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California.

Tsai still spends time in Hong Kong for business and has a home there.

2022

Tsai purchases a penthouse at 220 Central Park South for $188 million.

Tsai weighs in on the controversy surrounding Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters.

Tsai explains that the tweet triggered negative sentiment in China due to historical foreign invasions and separatist movements.

Tsai donates $30 million to Yale Law School in honor of his father.

Tsai donates to Yale for the construction and launch of the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking.

Tsai makes a donation to his high school, the Lawrenceville School, which is the largest gift the school ever received.

Tsai donates 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles, and 2,000 ventilators to New York during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tsai donates $1.6 million of medical supplies to hospitals in San Diego.

Tsai donates $50 million to social justice and economic equality initiatives to support BIPOC causes.

Tsai commits $50 million to Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic for the acoustical renovation of David Geffen Hall.

Tsai donates to Yale University to establish the Wu Tsai Institute for the study of human cognition.

Tsai debuts the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance and pledges $220 million to fund teams of experts and academics from various universities and institutions.

2017

Tsai receives the George H.W. Bush '48 Lifetime of Leadership Award from Yale University.