Terry Guo (Chinese: 郭台銘; pinyin: Guō Táimíng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Koeh Tâi-bêng; born 18 October 1950) is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and politician. Guo is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. Foxconn's English web site renders his surname as Gou. Founded in 1974, Foxconn grew to become an international business empire, becoming the largest private employer and exporter in Taiwan with a workforce of 1.2 million. As of 2024, Guo has a net worth of US$10.4 billion. Beginning in 2016, speculation surrounding Guo's political ambitions arose ahead of the 2020 presidential election. In 2019, Guo resigned from Foxconn and joined the Kuomintang (KMT) to run for president, declaring he was instructed by the sea goddess Mazu in a dream to contest the election. Guo ultimately lost the election, coming in second in the Kuomintang primary. After leaving the party following the 2019 primary, Guo rejoined in 2023 and announced his intention to run for president in the 2024 presidential election, but after running as an independent candidate, he ended his campaign in late November 2023. Once described as an "old friend" by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, Guo has been characterized as friendly to mainland business interests during his political and business career. In December 2022, Guo was credited with helping to successfully lobby the Xi Jinping Administration to ease zero-COVID rules implemented during the pandemic. On foreign policy, Guo has criticized the Taiwan independence movement and has called for a de-escalation of Sino–American tensions. Owing to his business background and image as a political outsider, Guo has been compared in international media to U.S. president Donald Trump.
Early life Guo 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, Guo 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. Guo has an older sister and two younger brothers, Gou Tai-chiang and Tony Gou, who have both become successful businesspeople as well. Guo 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.
Foxconn
Terry Guo founded Foxconn, established as Hon Hai Precision Industry (鴻海科技集團) in Taiwan in 1974 with $7,500 ($44,000 in 2021 US dollars) in startup money and a workforce of ten elderly employees. The company started off making plastic parts for television sets in a rented shed in Tucheng, a suburb of Taipei. A turning point came in 1980 when he received an order from Atari to make the console joystick. Guo expanded his business in the 1980s by embarking on an 11-month trip across the US in search of customers. An aggressive salesman, Guo arrived uninvited at many companies' headquarters; often, he won orders despite security being called on him. In 1988, Guo opened his first factory in Shenzhen where his largest factory remains. Guo scaled up production by integrating vertically the assembly process and facilities for workers. The manufacturing site became a campus that included housing, dining, medical care and burial for the workers, and even chicken farming to supply the cafeteria. In 1996, Hon Hai started building chassis for Compaq desktops. This was a breakthrough moment that led to building the bare bones chassis for other high-profile customers, including HP, IBM, and Apple. Within just a few years, Foxconn grew into a consumer electronics giant.
Other business ventures In 2019, Guo 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. Guo 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, Guo became the biggest shareholder in the biotech company Eirgenix. In December 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that a letter from Guo helped convince the Chinese government to ease Zero-COVID restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Political career Guo first joined the Kuomintang in 1970, but allowed his membership to lapse after 2000. In the 2012 Taiwan presidential election, Guo endorsed Ma Ying-jeou, stating that Ma was an "experienced, outstanding helmsman." After Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election, Guo 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 Guo himself.
Political views An opponent of the Taiwan independence movement, Guo 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, Guo 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.
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