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Asian Americans Outperform on Forbes’ “America’s Richest Self-Made Women”
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 05 Jun, 2025

Forbes latest rankings highlight the AAPI community’s outsized contributions both financially and socially

Few would be surprised by some of the names on Forbes’ 2025 list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women” which includes Oprah, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Sheryl Sandberg, and Serena Williams.  Even less surprising to us at GoldSea is the strong showing of Asian American women. 

Of the list’s 100 honorees, we have identified a minimum of 16 members of the AAPI community. For context, this country’s Asian population accounts for just 7.7% of women.  By making up at least 16% of the list, the AAPI community is vastly outperforming. 

Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic in the country, so it makes sense that they’re also trending upward on Forbes’ annual list. Of the AAPI women featured, less than a third have dropped in the rankings since last year while most have boosted their standing.

The list highlights something else that we already knew: The sheer versatility of the Asian Americans. The list, which features women who have created IT, semiconductor, and skincare businesses, own sports teams, and have themselves competed as athletes, is a reminder to think of us as a monolith only at your own peril. 

Here are just a few of the powerhouse women featured:

#5 - Thai Lee, IT Provider

Thai Lee was born in Bangkok (as intentionally reflected in her first name), grew up in South Korea, and came to the US for college where she made history as a member of Amherst College’s first freshman class to allow women. Her father also made history as the first Korean to graduate Amherst. 

She is now the CEO of IT provider SHI International which does $15 billion in sales. Lee and her husband bought the company’s predecessor for less than $1 million in 1989.

#11 - Peggy Cherng, Fast Food

Peggy Cherng, born in Myanmar, left her engineering career in 1983 to help her husband open the first Panda Express which was located in a Glendale, CA shopping mall. Today, the Chinese fast food chain of which she is co-founder and co-CEO does an estimated $5.9 billion in sales across 2,400 locations.

Panda Express’s dominant performance can at least partially be attributed to Cherng’s groundbreaking implementation of the company’s sales and analytics software. 

#14 - Weili Dai, Semiconductor Manufacturing

Weili Dai was a semi professional basketball player in China before moving to the US at age 17.

She has founded at least four semiconductor companies, including Marvell Technology, which she and her late husband ran for 21 years, as well as her newest venture Silicon Box which is based in Singapore.

#26 - Lucy Guo, AI

Lucy Guo, age 30, has beaten out Taylor Swift to become the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

In 2016, Guo co-founded AI company Scale with Alexandr Wang. While she left the company two years later, she has held on to much of her stake, now valued at $1.3 billion.  She now runs Passes a platform she founded for creators to share advice. She attended Carnegie Mellon University but dropped out before graduating. 

#28 - Michele Kang, Healthcare and Technology

Michele Kang, who first moved from South Korea to the US for an economics degree at the University of Chicago, made much of her fortune founding healthcare IT company Cognosate. She sold Cognosate in 2004 and now spends much of her time focused on her passion: soccer.

Kang owns majority stakes in NWSL's Washington Spirit, France's OL Lyonnes and England's London City Lionesses and also has a stake in Eagle Football holdings which controls another five soccer clubs across Europe, Florida, and Brazil. 

Additional AAPI honorees: 

#8 - Jayshree Ullal, President and CEO of Aristia Networks

#23 - Maky Zanganeh, Co-CEO of Summit Therapeutics

#23 - Shuo Wang, Co-founder of Deel

#33 - Theresia Gouw, Founder of Agrew Capital

#35 - Neerja Sethi, Co-founder of Syntel

#43 - Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices

#61 - Neha Narkhede, Co-founder of Confluent

#64 - Young Sohn, Founding Board Member of Veeva Systems

#77 - Sara Liu, Co-founder of Super Micro Computer Inc. 

#89 - Doreen Granpeesheh, Founder of Center for Autism and Related Disorders

#99 - Toni Ko, Founder of NYX Cosmetics


The list highlights something else that we already knew: The sheer versatility of the Asian Americans

Lucy Guo speaks at Forbes 2024 Conference [Source: Forbes / Lucy Guo Instagram]

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