David Sun, 74, and John Tu, 84, the co-founders of Kingston Technology, have emerged as two of the biggest wealth gainers this year, each seeing their net worth increase by nearly $14 billion — a 44% rise since January — according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The pair, who equally own the California-based memory and storage company, now each have a net worth of approximately $45 billion, placing them 45th and 46th on the global rich list, ahead of notable figures like MacKenzie Scott, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, and Miriam Adelson. Sun serves as Kingston’s operating chief, while Tu is president and CEO. Both men were born in Taiwan and mainland China, respectively, studied electrical engineering, and moved to the United States in the 1970s. They met in Los Angeles, bonded over basketball, and launched their first company, Camintonn, in 1982. After selling it for $6 million four years later, they lost their savings in the 1987 Black Monday crash. They rebounded by founding Kingston Technology, which they sold to SoftBank in 1996 for $1.5 billion. They repurchased the stake in 1999 for $450 million, regaining full control. Their fortune has surged in 2024 due to soaring demand from AI-driven data centers. As tech giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon expand their AI infrastructure, they are racing to secure memory chips and storage components, triggering what analysts are calling a “memory supercycle.” This unprecedented demand has caused a global shortage of memory products, driving prices and profits up sharply. The impact is evident in the stock market. Micron Technology, a major player in memory chips, has seen its share price more than quadruple over the past year, pushing its market value to $470 billion — surpassing the valuations of major corporations like Mastercard, Oracle, Costco, Bank of America, and Home Depot. Sun and Tu’s success underscores how foundational hardware components are becoming central to the AI boom. Their journey from early setbacks to becoming billionaires twice over reflects both the risks and rewards of long-term innovation in the tech sector. Their wealth gains now place them among the top earners globally, outpacing even the Walmart heirs, who each gained about $13 billion this year.