Terry Gou

Gou was born in Banqiao Township, Taipei County (Banqiao District, New Taipei). His parents lived in mainland China's Shanxi Province before the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan in 1949. His father was a policeman who fought on behalf of the Kuomintang during the war.

As the second child of his family, Gou received education from elementary school to post college. He graduated from Taipei University of Marine Technology. After graduation, he continued to work in a rubber factory, working at a grinding wheel, and medicine plant until the age of 24. Gou has an older sister and two younger brothers, Gou Tai-chiang and Tony Gou, who have both become successful businesspeople as well.

Gou fulfilled his national service obligations by joining the Republic of China Air Force as an anti-aircraft artillery officer. As part of the airforce, he was stationed in Kinmen at a time when a potential People's Liberation Army invasion of the island as a stepping stone to invade Taiwan was a real fear. He would be discharged in 1973.

In 2019, Gou argued that Apple should move its manufacturing out of mainland China to Taiwan. The comments came after he confirmed he will step down from his role as Foxconn chairman.

Gou is also the main owner of HMD Global, which is a company founded in 2016 to sell Nokia branded phones. HMD buys the R&D, manufacturing and distribution from FIH Ltd, which is part of Hon Hai group.

In April 2021, Gou became the biggest shareholder in the biotech company Eirgenix. In December 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that a letter from Gou helped convince the Chinese government to ease Zero-COVID restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gou and his first wife, Serena Lin (林淑如; Lín Shúrú; 1950–2005), have a son who works in the film and real estate industries and a daughter who worked in the financial sector. Gou founded an educational charity with Lin in 2000 and intended to eventually give away one third of his wealth to charity. After Gou's wife died, Gou's daughter assumed leadership in the charity.

In the 1990s, Gou had an extramarital affair with Chen Chung-mei, a bar girl, who had a private investigator videotape her and Gou having sex in order to blackmail Gou for money. While Gou first agreed to pay the money, when they next met he had police arrest Chen and the private investigator, Hsu Ching-wei, and sued them for extortion, stating he knew the affair would become "exposed one way or another".

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

In 2005, Serena Lin died of breast cancer at the age of 55. Gou's younger brother, Tony Gou, died in 2007 of leukemia. Also that year, Hsu Ching-wei accused Gou of having an affair during the 1990s.

In 2007, Gou publicly pursued movie star Carina Lau. He confirmed to the media that their relationship had “just started” and that he was “serious” about her, greatly raising his public profile and marking the beginning of his emergence as a media personality. Lau responded by saying that Tony Leung, her long-time partner, was aware of the courtship. The relationship was ended by Lau.

Gou married his second wife, choreographer Delia Tseng (born 1974) on 26 July 2008. Tseng and Gou have three children. Together, they have decided to give 90% of Gou's wealth away.

Gou first joined the Kuomintang in 1970, but allowed his membership to lapse after 2000. In the 2012 Taiwan presidential election, Gou endorsed Ma Ying-jeou, stating that Ma was an "experienced, outstanding helmsman." After Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election, Gou was the subject of a spoof open letter in Bloomberg, in which author Tim Culpan was severely critical of Trump. The article was mistakenly reported as having been written by Gou himself.

Political views

An opponent of the Taiwan independence movement, Gou claims the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) "exalts Taiwan independence and hates and opposes China". His position is that Taiwan independence is not an issue. Instead, he supports the 1992 Consensus under the one-China framework, and has criticized the DPP for political wordplay in their interpretation of the consensus.

In 2019, Gou expressed misgivings about the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan, arguing that the Legislative Yuan did not respect the results of the 2018 referendum where a majority voted against legalization.

"Animal" management comment controversy

In 2012, a controversy arose after Gou jokingly compared Foxconn's workforce to animals during a company event at the Taipei zoo. The Xinhua News Agency reported that while speaking on the challenges of presiding over a workforce with over one million employees, Gou stated that as "human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache."

Foxconn defended Gou's comments, stating that "Mr. Gou did say that, since all humans are members of the animal kingdom, it might be possible to learn from [the Director of the Taipei Zoo, Chin Shih-chien] Mr. Chin's experience as his team looks for lessons that can be applied to business." Moreover, Foxconn clarified that Gou's comments were not discriminatory, explaining that "Mr. Gou's comments were directed at all humans and not at any specific group".