Five AAPI Self-Made Billionaire Women You Should Know

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month was created to honor the accomplishments and heritage of Asian and Pacific Islander American.

Celebrated in May, this month offers a special opportunity to highlight the financial successes achieved by AAPI women in various industries. Many AAPI women have become prominent figures in the business world, transforming industries and building substantial wealth through innovation and entrepreneurship. We’ve often heard about the successes of multi-millionaire stars like Padma Lakshmi or Vera Wang. Their accomplishments not only reflect personal determination and savvy business acumen but also set a powerful precedent for financial success and independence, inspiring future generations to pursue and realize their financial dreams.

This May, Her Agenda is highlighting women of AAPI origin who have become not only made money but become self-made billionaires through their own business acumen and hard work.

Neerja Sethi is an Indian-born entrepreneur who founded the IT consulting company Syntel out of her apartment with her husband Bharat Desai in Michigan in 1980.

The couple started their company with an investment of just $2000. Syntel has since been acquired by Atos for about $3.5 billion dollars, after which Neerja left the company with $510 million for her stake. Forbes currently evaluates her net worth at $1 billion.

Weili Dai is a Chinese-born entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Marvell Technology Group, which is mainly known for developing semi-conductors and technology related to that area.

After 20 years serving as president, Weili has moved on to found and chair other semi-conductor and AI companies such as Silicon Box, DreamBig, MeetKai, and more. Forbes currently evaluates her net worth at $1.3 billion.

Weili is also well-known as board member of the charity Give2Asia, which helps connect philanthropists with Asians in need. She also serves as chairwoman of Lark Health, which is an AI program designed to help manage diabetes.

Peggy Cherng is a Burmese-born entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Panda Express, and its parent company the Panda Restaurant Group. The widespread success her family had was due to her skill.

Peggy has a PhD in electrical engineering and a background in coding. While her husband managed the restaurant side of the business, drawing on his family’s culinary roots, Peggy applied her tech expertise to build a company powered by computer data—an innovative approach at the time. Panda Express still doesn’t franchise, meaning they still run the entire chain of restaurants themselves.

Forbes currently evaluates her net worth at $3.7 billion. The Cherngs currently run multiple charities, such as Panda Cares for protection of children, or the Cherng Family Trust to help with investments. They regularly give some of the largest donations in history, including giving $100 million to City of Hope for cancer research.

Jayshree Ullal is a British-Indian businesswoman and CEO of Arista Networks, which is a computer networking company in California.

With Jayshee as head of the company, Arista has gone from a million dollar company before her arrival in 2008 to generating $7 billion dollars in revenue in 2024 alone. Forbes currently evaluates her net worth at $4.2 billion. 

Thai Lee is a Thai Korean businesswoman and CEO of SHI International Corp, a multi-billion-dollar IT company that provides everything from physical products to software and services whose clients include Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T.

Thai and her ex-husband took a small defunct software company in 1989 and turned it into a billion-dollar business, and post-divorce, she retained 60% of the company.

SHI is also the largest MWBE certified company in the country. Through the company, they have various charitable events, such as blood drives or scholarship giveaways. Forbes currently evaluates her at $5.8 billion.