Patrick Soon-Shiong (Chinese: 黄馨祥; pinyin: Huáng Xīnxiáng; born July 29, 1952) is a South African and American businessman, researcher and surgeon who invented Abraxane, a drug used for lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. He has been owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times since 2018. Soon-Shiong received FDA approval for a new class of immunotherapy drug called Anktiva in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in 2024. Soon-Shiong is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups; an adjunct professor of surgery and executive director of the Wireless Health Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; and a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Dartmouth College. He is currently Executive Chairman, Global Chief Medical & Technology Officer at ImmunityBio. Soon-Shiong is the chairman of Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, a non-profit foundation. He has been a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers since 2010. Soon-Shiong's net worth is estimated at US$16.6 billion as of 2026 according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes. He has been called the richest man in Los Angeles and one of the wealthiest doctors in the world.
Early life and education Soon-Shiong was born in Port Elizabeth (then part of the Union of South Africa) to Chinese immigrant parents who fled China during the Japanese occupation in World War II. His parents were Hakka Chinese originally from Meixian District in Guangdong province. His ancestral surname is Huang (黃). Soon-Shiong graduated from the University of Witwatersrand, where he was fourth in his class of 189 and received a Bachelor of Medicine at age 23. He completed his medical internship at Johannesburg's General Hospital. He then studied at the University of British Columbia, where he earned a master's degree in surgery in 1979. He also earned an M.D. from University of Witwatersrand. He received research awards from the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the American Association of Academic Surgery. He immigrated to the United States and began surgical training at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and became a board-certified surgeon in 1984. Soon-Shiong is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is a United States citizen.
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