NEW BILLIONAIRE: RAZOR’S EDGE

Min-Liang Tan may be creating Asia’s next great tech giant. But losses at Razer are mounting.

A November IPO lifts this entrepreneur from Singapore into the three-comma club. Plus: Billionaires remember the best holiday gifts they’ve ever gotten.

For as long as he can remember, Min-Liang Tan hasn’t gotten more than four hours’ sleep. Most recently, THX has kept him up at night. Tan bought the audio company, founded by George Lucas, last October for an undisclosed sum. “We’ve got a lot of expectations to grow into the entertainment space: movies, music and things like that,” says Tan, dressed in his usual black shirt and blue jeans. “That’s something we are really excited about.”

Tan, 40, has spent the last few years expanding the reach of the Singaporeand San Francisco–based Razer, a 12-year-old company best known for gaming laptops and accessories. In July 2015 Razer bought the software assets of Ouya, an Android gaming console, and in January 2017 it snapped up Nextbit, an Android phone maker. Right around the time of Razer’s November IPO—in which Tan retained a 34% stake worth some $1.6 billion—the company unveiled its first smartphone.

Throughout all this, Razer has swung from a $20 million profit in 2014 to a $20 million loss in 2015 and a $60 million loss in 2016.

Tan’s ambitions are undimmed. “Life is short,” he says.