Charles Liang (; born 1956 or 1957) is a Taiwanese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman and

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He is the co-founder (with his wife Sara Liu), chairman, president and CEO of

Supermicro Super Micro Computer, Inc., doing business as Supermicro, is an American information technology company based in San Jose, California. The company is one of the largest producers of high-performance and high-efficiency servers, while also provi ...

, an information technology company based in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

Early life and education

Liang was born in Chiayi, Taiwan. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (abbreviated as NTUST or TaiwanTech) is a public university located in Taipei, Taiwan. TaiwanTech was established in 1974 as the National Taiwan Institute of Technology (), the first and ...

, then earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A& ...

in the US. As a student, Liang was interested in medical technologies and worked on "developing computerized systems to help diagnose illnesses".

Career

After graduating, Liang took on a job teaching at his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

, but left sometime in the 1980s to pursue his passions. He worked on a chip design for a healthcare company that utilized artificial intelligence, which he called an "AI Processor". From July 1991 to August 1993, Liang was the president and chief design engineer of Micro Center Computer, a motherboard design and manufacturing company. Among other roles, Liang worked for

Chips and Technologies Chips and Technologies, Inc. (C&T), was an early fabless semiconductor company founded in Milpitas, California, in December 1984 by Gordon A. Campbell and Dado Banatao. Its first product, announced September 1985, was a four chip Enhanced Graph ...

and Suntek Information International Group, serving as an engineer and project leader. In 1993, Liang co-founded Supermicro alongside his wife and company treasurer, Chiu-Chu Liu, known as Sara. The business began as a five-person operation run by Liang. In 1996, Supermicro opened a manufacturing subsidiary, Ablecom, in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, which is run by Charles's brothers, Steve Liang and Bill Liang. Charles and his wife own close to 31 percent of Ablecom, while Steve Liang and other members of the family own close to 50 percent. As of January 2024, Liang's stake in Supermicro is estimated at $3.3 billion. Liang holds several patents for server technology.

Green Earth Foundation

Liang is the founder of the Green Earth Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing forestation worldwide. In 2022, the Green Earth Foundation purchased nearly 200 acres of land in

Milpitas, California Milpitas (Spanish for or little cornfields) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, it is bordered by San Jose, California, S ...

, formerly known as Rancho Higuera. The foundation also seeks to plant drought-resistant trees in the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, supporting the Great Green Wall initiative.

Personal life

Liang is married to Sara Liu, and they have five children.

References

{{Reflist Living people American billionaires University of Texas at Arlington alumni National Taiwan University of Science and Technology alumni American chief executives Taiwanese billionaires 1950s births