Joe Tsai | |||||||||||||||
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| 蔡崇信 | |||||||||||||||
.jpg) Tsai in 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Born | January 1964 (age 62) Taipei, Taiwan | ||||||||||||||
| Education | Yale University (BA,JD) | ||||||||||||||
| Known for | Cofounder and chairman,Alibaba Group Owner,Brooklyn Nets,New York Liberty,San Diego Seals,Las Vegas Desert Dogs,Barclays Center | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Children | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 蔡崇信 | ||||||||||||||
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Joseph Chung-Hsin Tsai(Chinese:蔡崇信;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Chhòa Chông-sìn; born January 1964)[2] is a Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire business magnate, lawyer, and philanthropist.[3][4] He is a co-founder and chairman of the Chinese multinational technology companyAlibaba Group. Tsai owns theBrooklyn Nets of theNational Basketball Association (NBA), theNew York Liberty of theWomen's National Basketball Association (WNBA), theSan Diego Seals of theNational Lacrosse League (NLL), and has interests in several other professional sports franchises.
Tsai was born inTaipei, Taiwan, to Paul C. Tsai (Chinese:蔡中曾;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Chhòa Tiong-cheng, d.2013), a second-generation lawyer, and Ruby Tsai. He has three younger siblings: Eva, Vivian, and Benjamin.
Tsai's grandfather, Ruchin Tsar, left the Chinese mainland in 1948, part of theKuomintang exodus of millions fleeing thecommunists as the country's civil war ended. Tsar had been an adviser to theKuomintang government of nationalist leaderChiang Kai-shek, who, in the aftermath of the war, established the Republic of China as a one-party state in Taiwan.[5]
At age 13, Tsai was sent to the U.S. to attend theLawrenceville School inLawrenceville, New Jersey, where he played both lacrosse and football (inside linebacker) and was a member of Cleve House.[citation needed] Tsai enrolled at his father's alma mater,Yale University, in fall 1982.[5] He played for the Yale varsity lacrosse team for four years and has remained a supporter of the team.[6]
In 1986, Tsai earned aBachelor of Arts (B.A.) in economics andEast Asian studies fromYale University. He then earned aJuris Doctor (J.D.) fromYale Law School, where he was articles editor of theYale Law & Policy Review, in 1990.[7][4]
Tsai became a tax associate at thewhite-shoe law firm ofSullivan & Cromwell after graduation[8] and was admitted as an attorney to the New York bar on 6 May 1991.[9] After three years at the law firm, he switched to private equity and joined Rosecliff, Inc., a small management buyout firm based in New York, as vice president and general counsel. He left for Hong Kong in 1995 to join the SwedishWallenberg family's investment conglomerateInvestor AB, where he was responsible for its Asian private equity investments.[10]
It was in this role that he first metJack Ma in 1999 inHangzhou after being introduced by a friend who was trying to sell his own company to Ma. Tsai was impressed with Ma's idea to create an international import and export marketplace, as well as his charismatic personality, but it was Ma's followers and their energy and enthusiasm that ultimately convinced Tsai.[11] Later that year he quit the $700,000-a-year job at Investor AB and offered to join Ma as a member of the founding team. At the time each of Alibaba's 18 cofounders—of which Tsai was the only Western-educated member—accepted a salary of only $600 a year. He was chief operating officer, chief financial officer, executive vice chairman and founding board member. He single-handedly established Alibaba's financial and legal structure, since no other member of the team had any experience in venture capital or law. He was Alibaba's executive vice chairman since May 2013 and became chairman of the company in September 2023.[12] He has become the second-largest individualshareholder of Alibaba after Ma.[10][13] In 2025, he remained Alibaba Group chairman.[14] Tsai's net worth in 2022 was estimated to be US$8.1 billion.[4] In 2025, he was ranked #8 on Forbes list of Hong Kong's 50 Richest, with an estimated net worth of $11.8 billion.[15]
In September 2019, Tsai became the owner of theBrooklyn Nets of theNBA and chairman ofBarclays Center. He initially invested in the NBA team in October 2017, purchasing a 49% stake in the Nets from Russian billionaireMikhail Prokhorov in a deal that valued the team at $2.3 billion, with the option to buy the remaining stake of the team no later than 2021.[16][17][18] Tsai exercised that option in August 2019, and at the same time, bought the Nets' arena from Prokhorov for nearly $1 billion in a separate deal.[19]
Tsai's ownership in the Nets includes theLong Island Nets of theNBA G League and the Nets Gaming Crew of theNBA 2K League. In January 2019, Tsai headed a group that bought theWNBA'sNew York Liberty from theMadison Square Garden Company.[20] In 2024, he sold 15% of BSE Global, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, to Julia Koch for around $700 million.[15] In 2025, he remained BSE chairman and Nets governor. BSE also owned operating rights toBarclays Center and theNew York Liberty.[21]
Tsai played varsity lacrosse at Yale, and is also an avid supporter of the sport of lacrosse. He is the owner of theSan Diego Seals, and a co-owner of theLas Vegas Desert Dogs, both of which are professionalbox lacrosse teams in theNational Lacrosse League (NLL). Tsai co-owns the Desert Dogs withWayne Gretzky,Dustin Johnson, andSteve Nash.[22][23][24]
He is also chairman of J Tsai Sports with investments in the upstart field lacrosse league, thePremier Lacrosse League and several sports media and technology companies based in North America and Asia. Tsai made his investment in the Premier Lacrosse League in February 2019, along withthe Chernin Group andthe Raine Group, helping fund the new lacrosse league founded by lacrosse playerPaul Rabil and his brother Mike Rabil.[25]
In March 2018, Tsai joined aMichael Rubin-led group to buy theCarolina Panthers.[26] The bid was ultimately unsuccessful.[27]
Tsai is also an investor inMajor League Soccer franchiseLos Angeles FC.[28][29]
In 2022, Tsai led an investment round inJust Women's Sports, an American media company dedicated to women's sports.[30]
In June 2024, Tsai sold a 15% minority stake in his sports holding company, BSE Global, which owns the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, the New York Liberty of the WNBA and Barclays Center in Brooklyn, to New York billionaire Julia Koch and her children that the value assigned to the company's sports holdings was $6 billion.[31]
In December 2024, Tsai purchased a 3% stake in theMiami Dolphins.[32]
In May 2025, Tsai facilitated the sale of a minority stake in his WNBA team, theNew York Liberty, to raise capital for a new practice facility. The transaction established a record valuation for a professional women's sports franchise at $450 million, representing a thirtyfold increase on the price Tsai paid to acquire the team in 2019.[33][34]
He is married toClara Wu Tsai, a granddaughter ofWu San-lien [zh], the first elected mayor ofTaipei City.[35] Tsai and Wu have three children.[36] Tsai's family now primarily resides in theLa Jolla neighborhood ofSan Diego, California.[37] Tsai primarily resides in Hong Kong and spends much of his time there for business.[1] In January 2022, Tsai paid $188 million for a penthouse at220 Central Park South.[38]
On 7 October 2019, Tsai weighed in afterHouston Rockets general managerDaryl Morey posted a tweet supportingprotesters in Hong Kong.[39] In an open letter to all NBA fans on his Facebook page, Tsai explained, with reference tohistorical foreign invasions of China, that Morey's tweet triggered a strong negative sentiment in China against territorial losses, especially those perceived to have been caused or escalated by foreign entities, and separatist movements.[40][41][42]
In March 2016, Tsai donated $30 million to his alma mater,Yale Law School, in honor of his father to support the continuing work of the Law School's China Center and renamed it Paul Tsai China Center.[43][44]
In May 2017, Tsai and his wife, through the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, made another donation to Yale for the construction, launch, and programs of the center and named it Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking.[45][46]
In June 2017, the Tsais, again through the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, made a donation to his high school, theLawrenceville School, inMercer County, New Jersey, which was the single largest gift the school ever received.[47][48][49] Tsai is a member of Lawrenceville's board of trustees.[50]
In late March and early April 2020 during theCOVID-19 pandemic, the Tsais donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles and 2,000 ventilators to New York.[51] On 20 April 2020, they donated $1.6 million in medical supplies toUC San Diego to be used and shared with the region's health care systems and hospitals.[52]
In August 2020, the Tsais donated $50 million to social justice and economic equality initiatives to supportBIPOC causes.[53]
In late 2020, the Tsais committed to contribute $50 million toLincoln Center and theNew York Philharmonic to facilitate the acceleratedacoustical renovation ofDavid Geffen Hall. On 3 August 2022, Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic announced the naming of the concert hall as the Wu Tsai Theater, as well as the naming of a Wu Tsai Series of concerts celebrating interdisciplinary works from diverse voices.[54][55]
In February 2021, the Tsais made a donation toYale University to establish the Wu Tsai Institute, focused on to the study of human cognition.[56]
In July 2021, the Tsais debuted the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance and pledged $220 million to the foundation to fund teams of experts and academics fromStanford University, theUniversity of Kansas, theUniversity of Oregon,University of California, San Diego,Boston Children's Hospital and theSalk Institute for Biological Studies.[57]
In 2017, Tsai received the George H.W. Bush '48 Lifetime of Leadership Award from Yale University.[58]
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