Vietnam's richest man and founder of Vingroup, the country's biggest property developer turned conglomerate.
Mr Vuong made his first fortune selling instant noodles in Ukraine in the 1990s. He sold that restaurant business to Nestlé and invested the proceeds in Vietnam's luxury property market. Vingroup soon became the country's biggest developer and then expanded into a sprawling conglomerate that does everything from designing smartphones to setting up schools.
A Vingroup subsidiary called VinFast is South-East Asia's biggest homegrown electric-vehicle maker. It has lost some $11bn since launching its first electric car in late 2021. As of June 2025 Mr Vuong had pitched in $2bn of his personal wealth to cover VinFast's losses and pledged billions more. Vietnam's EV charging network is compatible only with VinFast's cars. The government is considering giving another subsidiary, VinSpeed, a $60bn contract to build a high-speed railway.
Vingroup's transport arm broke ground in December 2025 on a $4bn metro line connecting Ho Chi Minh City to a nearby coastal area. Vingroup has also expanded into making films (V-Film) and steel (VinMetal).
I'm still waiting for the advent of the computer science groupie.