Tech
Asia Leaders
Arvind Krishna Rebuilt IBM Around Software. Now He Has to Make the AI Stack Outrun the Mainframe Cycle
Arvind Krishna made IBM smaller, more software-led and more profitable. A second-quarter shortfall now tests whether Confluent, Red Hat and watsonx can produce growth independent of the mainframe cycle.
Asia Leaders
Lucy Guo Built Passes Around Creator Ownership. Trust Must Become the Subscription Advantage
A FigureAsia examination of how Lucy Guo is turning Passes' attempt to scale a direct-to-fan subscription platform while Guo's retained Scale AI stake gives her unusual financial independence as an operator into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Shashank Kumar Is Rewiring Razorpay Around Payment Success. Reliability Has to Pay
A FigureAsia examination of how Shashank Kumar is turning Razorpay's attempt to use routing, passkeys and infrastructure software to reduce failed transactions across India's increasingly complex payment stack into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Ritesh Agarwal Has Taken PRISM Back to the IPO Gate. Investors Will Price the Quality of OYO's Profit
A FigureAsia examination of how Ritesh Agarwal is turning PRISM's renewed move towards a large Indian public offering after restructuring OYO, adding Motel 6 and improving reported profitability into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Nikesh Arora Made Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity’s Consolidator. Now He Has to Make the Stack Work as One
Nikesh Arora turned Palo Alto Networks into cybersecurity’s leading consolidator. CyberArk and Chronosphere now make integration—not another acquisition—the defining test of his platform strategy.
Asia Leaders
Scott Wu Joined Devin With Windsurf. The Combined Product Must Earn a US$26 Billion Valuation
A FigureAsia examination of how Scott Wu is turning Cognition's integration of the Windsurf editor into Devin's agentic workflow and its 2026 expansion into London, Japan and Singapore into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Harshil Mathur Made Razorpay an Omnichannel Platform. Regulation Must Become a Competitive Edge
A FigureAsia examination of how Harshil Mathur is turning Razorpay's expansion from online payment gateway into a broader omnichannel, banking-software and merchant operating platform into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Sualeh Asif Took Cursor Beyond Autocomplete. The Product Must Preserve Developer Judgement
A FigureAsia examination of how Sualeh Asif is turning Cursor's expansion from assisted editing into agents that can plan, change and review work across a codebase into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Zohran Mamdani Put Affordability at the Centre of New York. Delivery Will Decide the Economics
A FigureAsia examination of how Zohran Mamdani is turning Mamdani's first year as mayor, in which an affordability mandate has moved from campaign language into bus, consumer-protection, childcare and digital-service execution into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Aravind Srinivas Turned Search Into a Computer. Perplexity Must Now Make the Economics Legible
A FigureAsia examination of how Aravind Srinivas is turning Perplexity's 2026 shift from an answer engine towards Perplexity Computer, an agentic system that executes research and work rather than merely returning links into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Alexandr Wang Put Evaluation at the Centre of Meta's AI Reset. Governance Must Keep Pace
A FigureAsia examination of how Alexandr Wang is turning Meta's effort to turn the data, evaluation and operational disciplines associated with Scale AI into a repeatable development system for its new generation of models into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Surya Midha Moved From Mercor's Operations Desk to Its Chair. Governance Must Catch Up With Growth
A FigureAsia examination of how Surya Midha is turning Midha's transition from operating leadership to chairman as Mercor scales a global marketplace for experts who train and evaluate AI systems into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Adarsh Hiremath Built Mercor's Human-Data Engine. Security and Worker Quality Are Now the Product
A FigureAsia examination of how Adarsh Hiremath is turning Mercor's move from automated recruiting into high-skill human-data infrastructure for frontier AI laboratories into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Sanjay Mehrotra Turned Micron’s Memory Shortage Into Long-Term Contracts. Now He Has to Stop the Boom From Rebuilding the Glut
Sanjay Mehrotra has used AI-driven scarcity to secure five-year customer commitments and record margins at Micron. The harder task is expanding supply without financing the next memory glut.
Asia Leaders
Nithin Kamath Is Turning Zerodha’s Profits Into Patient Capital. Rainmatter Needs Portfolio Accountability
Rainmatter has expanded from fintech partnerships into a broad portfolio and a foundation supporting climate and livelihoods. Nithin Kamath must show how patient capital learns, recycles returns and remains accountable when it avoids board seats and fixed exits.
Asia Leaders
Fei-Fei Li Opened World Labs Through an API. Developer Demand Must Validate Spatial Intelligence
Fei-Fei Li has placed usage-based API access, creative tools, developer integration and world models that may eventually support simulation and embodied intelligence at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Huda Kattan Bought Back Huda Beauty. Founder Control Must Now Fund Its Own Growth
Huda Kattan has placed social-led product discovery, colour cosmetics, direct consumer relationships and selective distribution through retailers such as Sephora at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Choi Soo-yeon Made AI Pay Across Naver's Core. Global C2C Must Justify the Expansion
Choi Soo-yeon has placed search and display advertising, commerce, payments, cloud, web content and consumer-to-consumer marketplaces at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Lisa Su Pushed AMD's Server Ambition Beyond GPUs. Memory Costs Could Split the Portfolio
Lisa Su has placed EPYC server CPUs, Instinct accelerators, adaptive computing, semi-custom chips and a common software and customer ecosystem at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Jenny Lee Turned Granite Asia Into a Multi-Asset Platform. Penang Will Test Its Industrial Thesis
Jenny Lee has placed cross-border sourcing, operational networks, flexible capital and long relationships with Asian technology founders at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Demis Hassabis Moved DeepMind Deeper Into the Laboratory. Scientific AI Needs a Verification Business Model
Demis Hassabis is building a wider scientific-AI stack around AlphaGenome and Co-Scientist. The opportunity is large, but laboratories need reproducible gains rather than fluent novelty.
Asia Leaders
Melanie Perkins Put AI Inside Canva's Full Work Suite. Product Breadth Must Convert Into Enterprise Depth
Melanie Perkins has placed freemium distribution, collaborative design, subscriptions, brand-management tools and AI features embedded across documents, presentations, video and marketing workflows at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Josephine Teo Built Singapore's Agentic-AI Rulebook. Adoption Must Reach Smaller Firms
Josephine Teo has placed digital public infrastructure, model governance, skills programmes, cloud capacity and a policy regime designed to attract international technology investment at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Anima Anandkumar Put Neural Operators on Firmer Ground. Scientific AI Must Earn Its Compute
Anima Anandkumar’s neural-operator research targets reusable scientific models rather than one-off predictions. Adoption will depend on verification, compute economics and domain trust.
Asia Leaders
Jyoti Bansal Is Putting Autonomous Agents Into Software Delivery. Harness Must Make Every Change Governable
AI can generate code faster than enterprises can validate and ship it. Jyoti Bansal is positioning Harness as the control layer around that bottleneck, where permissions, evidence, cost and rollback matter more than another coding assistant.
Asia Leaders
Sanae Takaichi Turned Fiscal Activism Into a Governing Mandate. Bond Markets Will Price the Next Move
Sanae Takaichi has placed public-private investment in semiconductors, data infrastructure, energy security and defence-linked manufacturing at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Min-Liang Tan Is Spending More Than $600 Million on AI for Gaming. Developers Must Become Razer Customers
Razer’s distribution comes from gamers, not enterprise software buyers. Min-Liang Tan’s AI strategy will work if studios adopt its tools because they improve quality and testing, rather than because generative features add another slogan to devices.
Asia Leaders
Anousheh Ansari Proved Prizes Can Mobilise Research. XPRIZE Winners Still Need Customers
XPRIZE can define ambitious goals and attract innovators that conventional programmes miss. Anousheh Ansari must now measure how many winning technologies become deployed systems rather than ending at a compelling final demonstration.
Asia Leaders
Lip-Bu Tan Has Put Intel Back on an Engineering Clock. The Foundry Still Has to Find Customers
Lip-Bu Tan has restored discipline and delivered Intel 18A into production. The company’s future now turns on whether 14A can win the external volume that its fabs—and its identity—require.
Asia Leaders
Neal Mohan Turned YouTube Into a $60 Billion Media System. Now He Has to Keep AI From Breaking Its Trust
Neal Mohan transformed YouTube from a video platform into a diversified global media economy. Artificial intelligence will determine whether its scale remains an advantage or becomes a crisis of trust.
Asia Leaders
Tan Su Shan Inherited DBS at Its Peak. Now She Has to Prove the Franchise Is Bigger Than the Rate Cycle
Tan Su Shan did not inherit a bank in need of rescue. She inherited one at its peak—and must now show that deposits, wealth, technology and regional connectivity can outlast the rate windfall.
Asia Leaders
Jayshree Ullal Made Ethernet the AI Network. Two Customers Still Hold 42% of Arista's Revenue
Jayshree Ullal has positioned Arista at the centre of the AI data-centre build-out and preserved exceptional profitability. Customer concentration, proprietary interconnects and a fast-changing optics stack are the pressure points behind the numbers.
Asia Leaders
Jayshree Ullal Made Ethernet the Language of the Cloud. Now She Has to Make It the Fabric of AI
Jayshree Ullal turned Arista into the cloud era’s most disciplined networking challenger. AI now requires a broader systems company without the complexity Arista was built to defeat.
Asia Leaders
India’s Largest Bank Is Becoming a National Technology Platform
A FigureAsia examination of how C.S. Setty is positioning SBI for the next phase of banking.
Asia Leaders
For Demis Hassabis, Gemini’s Leap Into Action Makes Scientific Proof the Hard Part
Demis Hassabis has turned Google DeepMind into the research engine behind products used at vast scale. Its next challenge is to preserve scientific credibility while delivering on Alphabet’s historic AI investment.
Asia Leaders
SK hynix Found Its AI Moment Under Kwak Noh-Jung
A FigureAsia examination of how Kwak Noh-Jung is positioning SK hynix for the next phase of semiconductors.
Asia Leaders
Wang Weixiu Caught the Optical Wave Behind AI’s Data Centers
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Wang Weixiu’s next chapter at Zhongji Innolight.
Asia Leaders
Ferry Unardi Is Taking Traveloka Beyond Southeast Asia. Local Intelligence Must Still Travel
Traveloka is widening its Asia-Pacific reach under Ferry Unardi. The strategic test is exporting its operating system without diluting local relevance.
Asia Leaders
Wang Xin Brought Factory Discipline to the Tools That Make Circuit Boards
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Wang Xin’s next chapter at Guangdong Dtech Technology.
Asia Leaders
Jason Chang Sits at the Bottleneck of the Global Chip Industry
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Jason Chang’s next chapter at ASE Technology.
Asia Leaders
Daphne Koller’s $800 Million AI Bet Is Reaching Its First Human Trial Test
Daphne Koller has financed insitro with roughly $800 million in capital and collaboration revenue. Its first AI-discovered MASH programme is nearing the point where patients, not models, set the valuation.
Asia Leaders
Barry Lam Turned Contract Manufacturing Into an AI Server Strategy
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Barry Lam’s next chapter at Quanta Computer.
Asia Leaders
TCS’s K. Krithivasan Has to Sell Trust in the Age of Generative AI
A FigureAsia examination of how K. Krithivasan is positioning TCS for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Budi Gunadi Sadikin Has Turned Indonesia’s Health Reform into a Procurement-and-Utilisation Test
Indonesia is pairing free health checks with one of Asia’s largest medical-equipment and digital-health programmes. Budi Gunadi Sadikin’s banker-style procurement discipline now faces the harder task of sustained treatment across 6,000 inhabited islands.
Asia Leaders
The Robot Maker Waiting for Factory Spending to Return
A FigureAsia examination of how Kenji Yamaguchi is positioning FANUC for the next phase of industrial technology.
Asia Leaders
Check Point Is Getting a Founder’s Urgency Back
A FigureAsia examination of how Nadav Zafrir is positioning Check Point for the next phase of cybersecurity.
Asia Leaders
Bom Kim Built Coupang Around Reliability. A Data Breach Has Made Trust the Hardest Delivery
Coupang transformed Korean shopping through speed and dependable logistics. Bom Kim must now rebuild confidence after a breach exposed the limits of operational excellence without digital trust.
Asia Leaders
Amnon Shashua Is Recasting Mobileye for Physical AI. He Must Protect the Core While Funding the Leap
Mobileye’s automotive business is regaining momentum, but Amnon Shashua is extending its technology into physical AI. The strategic leap needs firmer financial proof.
Asia Leaders
Abraham Verghese Put Human Presence at the Centre of Medicine. AI Must Now Prove It Can Give Time Back
Abraham Verghese has spent years treating presence at the bedside as a clinical capability. As health systems scale generative AI in 2026, his framework offers a harder investment test: whether technology returns attention to patients without adding hidden error and inequity.
Asia Leaders
Lee Boo-jin Is Turning Hotel Shilla Into More Than a Family Trophy
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Lee Boo-jin’s next chapter at Hotel Shilla.
Asia Leaders
Shiv Nadar Built an Institution That Can Outlast Its Founder
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Shiv Nadar’s next chapter at HCL Technologies.
Asia Leaders
TSMC Became the Factory the AI Economy Cannot Do Without Under C.C. Wei
A FigureAsia examination of how C.C. Wei is positioning TSMC for the next phase of semiconductors.
Asia Leaders
Ali Ghodsi Has the Capital to Rebuild the Data Stack. Now Databricks Must Compound
Ali Ghodsi has built Databricks into a $5.4 billion revenue run-rate company. Its next phase depends on turning a widening product estate into one compounding platform.
Asia Leaders
Wang Laichun Learned the Foxconn System and Built Her Own
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Wang Laichun’s next chapter at Luxshare Precision.
Asia Leaders
Pony Ma Made WeChat Invisible Infrastructure
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Ma Huateng’s next chapter at Tencent.
Asia Leaders
Aravind Srinivas Is Turning Perplexity Into a Product Portfolio. Focus Is the Next Breakthrough
Aravind Srinivas has expanded Perplexity far beyond search. The next leadership test is turning product velocity into a focused, repeatable business system.
Asia Leaders
Hideo Kojima Extended Death Stranding 2 to PC. The Multiplatform Move Tests the Economics of the Auteur Game
Hideo Kojima extended Death Stranding 2 to PC in 2026. The move tests whether auteur-led games can widen reach without weakening studio independence.
Asia Leaders
Rumman Chowdhury Is Commercialising Independent AI Evaluation. The Business Must Protect Its Right to Say No
Rumman Chowdhury helped make public red teaming a core AI-governance practice. Her new challenge is to build a scalable evaluation business whose findings remain credible when commercial relationships and launch schedules create pressure.
Asia Leaders
Alexandr Wang Delivered Meta's First Superintelligence Model. A $145 Billion Build-Out Demands Returns
Alexandr Wang's first model at Meta is already spreading across its apps and glasses. Its commercial value must now catch up with a vast infrastructure budget and a high-priced talent reset.
Asia Leaders
Andrew Ng Is Building AI Companies Faster Than Frontier Models. The Returns Must Catch Up
Andrew Ng has assembled an ecosystem that teaches AI, tests applications and co-founds companies in months. Its advantage is speed and distribution; its next test is producing businesses with defensible margins after models become cheaper and easier to use.
Asia Leaders
He Xiangjian Turned a Village Workshop Into a Robotics Powerhouse
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining He Xiangjian’s next chapter at Midea Group.
Asia Leaders
Tan Teck Long Inherited a Record OCBC Franchise. His Next Frontier Must Outrun Falling Rates
Tan Teck Long took charge of OCBC in January 2026 with record income, strong capital and a diversified franchise. His first strategic test is to replace rate-driven earnings with fee growth and deeper regional customer relationships.
Asia Leaders
Inside John Tu’s Unflashy Partnership Behind Kingston Technology
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining John Tu’s next chapter at Kingston Technology.
Asia Leaders
Sarath Ratanavadi Is Assembling Thailand’s Power and Digital Future
A FigureAsia examination of how Sarath Ratanavadi is positioning Gulf Energy for the next phase of energy.
Asia Leaders
Terry Gou Built Foxconn on Scale and Now Has to Live Beyond It
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Terry Gou’s next chapter at Hon Hai Precision Industry and Foxconn.
Asia Leaders
Olayan Alwetaid Wants stc to Own More of Saudi Arabia’s Digital Stack
A FigureAsia examination of how Olayan Alwetaid is positioning stc Group for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Sandeep Bakhshi Made ICICI Bank a Model of Restraint. The Next Cycle Will Test That Discipline
ICICI Bank’s turnaround has become sustained compounding. Sandeep Bakhshi now faces the harder task of maintaining restraint during a period that rewards faster growth.
Asia Leaders
Sarath Ratanavadi Is Merging Power Telecom and Digital Infrastructure
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Sarath Ratanavadi’s next chapter at Gulf Development.
Asia Leaders
Hana Al Rostamani Has Given FAB Global Ambition. Execution Must Now Match the UAE’s Financial Reach
FAB is becoming a more international bank as Abu Dhabi’s capital travels further. Hana Al Rostamani’s challenge is to convert reach into repeatable, well-governed returns.
Asia Leaders
Noubar Afeyan Is Exporting Flagship’s Venture Factory to Sovereign Health Systems
Flagship Pioneering is extending its venture-creation model through Saudi, Singaporean and British institutions. Noubar Afeyan must convert privileged data and regulatory access into investable companies without compromising privacy, ownership or speed.
Asia Leaders
Cao Fei Saw the Virtual City Coming
A FigureAsia long-form profile of Cao Fei, examining how the 2025 work changed the terms of contemporary art and moving image, international reach and creative control.
Asia Leaders
Sridhar Ramaswamy Committed $6 Billion to AWS. Snowflake’s Multi-Cloud Promise Must Still Hold
Snowflake is growing quickly under Sridhar Ramaswamy and has made a six-year, $6 billion commitment to AWS. The economics may be compelling, but customers will judge the company by its freedom across clouds.
Asia Leaders
Sridhar Ramaswamy Is Building Snowflake’s Agentic Control Plane. Consumption Must Follow
Sridhar Ramaswamy has recast Snowflake around enterprise AI, open data and agentic work. The strategy now has to produce lasting usage, margins and trust.
Asia Leaders
Joseph Tsai Is Recasting Alibaba’s Deal Maker as Its Chairman
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Joseph Tsai’s next chapter at Alibaba and BSE Global.
Asia Leaders
Nikesh Arora Is Automating the Internet's Certificate Reset. Forty-Seven Days Will Expose the Gaps
Nikesh Arora is pushing Palo Alto Networks into cryptographic operations as certificate renewals accelerate and governments prepare for quantum-resistant standards. The opportunity sits inside every digital service; the risk is that failed automation can stop those services at the same scale.
Asia Leaders
Kazuma Sekiya Runs the Semiconductor Company That Wins by Cutting Things Apart
A FigureAsia examination of how Kazuma Sekiya is positioning Disco for the next phase of semiconductors.
Asia Leaders
Arvind Krishna Is Turning Open-Source Patching Into a Subscription. A $5 Billion Bet Must Earn Trust
Arvind Krishna is extending Red Hat's commercial open-source model beyond IBM's own products. Lightwell sells validated fixes for the software versions companies already run, creating a potentially large security business and a difficult test of neutrality, liability and subscription economics.
Asia Leaders
Jay Chaudhry Is Extending Zero Trust to AI Agents. Zscaler Must Keep It Coherent
Jay Chaudhry is adapting Zscaler’s zero-trust architecture to AI agents and data. The company must now turn rapid expansion into a coherent, profitable platform.
Asia Leaders
Liang Rubo Put AI at ByteDance’s Centre. Seedance Has Made Governance the Harder Problem
Liang Rubo has made artificial intelligence ByteDance’s central priority. Seedance’s rapid progress now tests whether the company can govern copyright, safety and global trust at equal speed.
Asia Leaders
Thomas Kurian Closed Google’s $32 Billion Wiz Deal. Now He Must Preserve the Multi-Cloud Trust Google Bought
Google Cloud has completed its acquisition of Wiz, giving Thomas Kurian a rare chance to make security the connective tissue of a fast-growing cloud business. The return will depend on keeping customers’ rival-cloud estates visible and trusted.
Asia Leaders
Masashi Yanagisawa Is Taking Sleep Testing Out of the Lab. The Data Must Earn Clinical Trust
Masashi Yanagisawa is building a commercial bridge between sleep neuroscience, home EEG and health data. Its value depends on proving that measurement changes treatment and outcomes.
Asia Leaders
Haluk Bayraktar Is Moving KIZILELMA Into Production. A Combat-Ready Fleet Is the Test
Baykar’s KIZILELMA has progressed from rapid prototyping to a production model with an expanding weapons portfolio. Haluk Bayraktar must now build the airworthiness, maintenance and manufacturing system behind an operational fleet.
Asia Leaders
Safra Catz Has Become Oracle’s AI Balance-Sheet Steward. A $638 Billion Backlog Must Fund the Build
Oracle’s cloud infrastructure revenue is rising sharply, but free cash flow turned deeply negative under heavy investment. Safra Catz’s next leadership role is to impose financing discipline on growth that arrives before the cash.
Asia Leaders
Dara Khosrowshahi Made Uber Profitable. Now He Has to Own the Driverless Transition
Dara Khosrowshahi has repaired Uber’s economics and legitimacy. The autonomous era will determine whether its marketplace remains at the centre of global mobility.
Asia Leaders
Pony Ma Wants Tencent’s Next Act to Be More Than WeChat
A FigureAsia examination of how Ma Huateng (Pony Ma) is positioning Tencent for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Vinod Khosla Backed a Record-Hot Geothermal System. The 2026 Wells Must Turn Heat Into Bankable Power
AI data centres need clean power around the clock. Vinod Khosla’s backing of Mazama Energy could open a major geothermal resource, but a temperature record is not a power plant and the 2026 field campaign must prove repeatable economics.
Asia Leaders
AI Chips Have Turned Testing Into Douglas Lefever’s Bottleneck
A FigureAsia examination of how Douglas Lefever is positioning Advantest for the next phase of semiconductors.
Asia Leaders
Huawei Learned to Survive the World It Could Not Choose
A FigureAsia examination of how Ren Zhengfei is positioning Huawei for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Masayoshi Son Is Betting SoftBank’s Future on the Cost of Intelligence
A FigureAsia examination of how Masayoshi Son is positioning SoftBank for the next phase of technology investment.
Asia Leaders
Liang Wenfeng Made Efficiency the Most Disruptive Idea in AI
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Liang Wenfeng’s next chapter at DeepSeek and High-Flyer.
Asia Leaders
Fujitsu Is Leaving Its Hardware Memory Behind
A FigureAsia examination of how Takahito Tokita is positioning Fujitsu for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Vinod Khosla Is Still Investing as if Consensus Is a Warning
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Vinod Khosla’s next chapter at Khosla Ventures.
Asia Leaders
Mustafa Suleyman Is Giving Microsoft Its Own AI Model Stack. The Bill Demands More Than Strategic Independence
Mustafa Suleyman has moved Microsoft from relying primarily on a partner’s frontier models towards a broader in-house portfolio. Strategic control matters, but customers and shareholders need evidence that another model stack earns its substantial cost.
Asia Leaders
Zhang Yiming Left the Corner Office but Not the Algorithmic Age
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zhang Yiming’s next chapter at ByteDance.
Asia Leaders
BINI Turned Local Pop Into a National Business Story
A FigureAsia long-form profile of BINI, examining how the 2025 work changed the terms of music group, international reach and creative control.
Asia Leaders
Wipro’s Reset Cannot Afford to Lose Its Patience
A FigureAsia examination of how Srini Pallia is positioning Wipro for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Jay Y. Lee Must Make Samsung Feel Hungry Again
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Jay Y. Lee’s next chapter at Samsung Electronics.
Asia Leaders
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Has Restored Paytm's Profit. Trust Is Still the Scarcer Asset
Paytm's financial recovery gives Vijay Shekhar Sharma a new starting point. Sustainable leadership now depends on institutional trust as much as growth.
Asia Leaders
Foxconn Is Moving Beyond the iPhone Era Under Young Liu
A FigureAsia examination of how Young Liu is positioning Foxconn for the next phase of electronics manufacturing.
Asia Leaders
Melanie Perkins Is Taking Canva Upmarket. Enterprise Distribution Must Catch Up With Product-Led Scale
Canva grew through individual users and teams. Melanie Perkins now has to turn that bottom-up reach into governed, company-wide deployments without sacrificing the accessibility that created the platform’s advantage.
Asia Leaders
Toyota’s Hybrid Patience Is Looking Less Like Hesitation
A FigureAsia examination of how Akio Toyoda is positioning Toyota for the next phase of automotive.
Asia Leaders
Sunil Bharti Mittal Is Building Airtel for the Bandwidth Economy
A FigureAsia examination of how Sunil Bharti Mittal is positioning Bharti Airtel for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Pierre Omidyar Is Spending an Internet Fortune on Public Institutions
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Pierre Omidyar’s next chapter at eBay and Omidyar Network.
Asia Leaders
aespa Made the Future Feel Personal
A FigureAsia long-form profile of aespa, examining how the 2025 work changed the terms of music group, international reach and creative control.
Asia Leaders
Shantanu Narayen Started Adobe’s CEO Search. The Handover Must Preserve an AI Transition He Will Not Finish
Shantanu Narayen will remain Adobe’s chair after a new chief executive is appointed. His final operating duty is to make the succession clear enough that the next leader can reshape the company without inheriting a shadow CEO.
Asia Leaders
Tencent’s Other Founder Still Shapes the Company From the Edges
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zhang Zhidong’s next chapter at Tencent.
Asia Leaders
Colin Huang’s Temu Gamble Is Testing the Limits of Bargain Commerce
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Colin Huang’s next chapter at PDD Holdings and Temu.
Asia Leaders
Xiaomi’s Lei Jun Is Learning How Expensive Reinvention Can Be
A FigureAsia examination of how Lei Jun is positioning Xiaomi for the next phase of consumer technology.
Asia Leaders
Peyush Bansal Has Taken Lenskart Public. The Harder Test Is Making Scale Sharper
Lenskart's public-market debut has been followed by strong growth. Peyush Bansal's next task is to make a larger system more precise and capital-efficient.
Asia Leaders
Saudi Industrial Policy Is Taking Shape Inside PIF’s Portfolio
A FigureAsia examination of how Yasir Al-Rumayyan is positioning PIF for the next phase of investment.
Asia Leaders
Thomas Kurian Made Google Cloud an AI Growth Engine. Now He Has to Turn Scale Into Trust
Thomas Kurian has turned Google Cloud into a fast-growing AI and data business. The next test is whether infrastructure scale, security and enterprise trust can advance together.
Asia Leaders
The Battery Boom Has Made Robin Zeng a Geopolitical Industrialist
A FigureAsia examination of how Robin Zeng is positioning CATL for the next phase of energy technology.
Asia Leaders
Sandy Xu Has Made JD Retail More Profitable. Food Delivery and Europe Will Test Her Discipline
Sandy Xu has improved JD Retail’s economics, but lower group profit exposes the cost of expansion. Food delivery and Joybuy Europe now have to earn strategic relevance.
Asia Leaders
Lisa Su’s Multi-Gigawatt Breakthrough Leaves AMD With a Taiwan-Sized Delivery Challenge
Lisa Su has secured multi-generation AI infrastructure commitments that could change AMD’s position. Its MI450 and Helios ramp will determine whether those contracts become a durable second platform.
Asia Leaders
Wang Laisheng Helped Luxshare Move From Connectors to Apple’s Inner Circle
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Wang Laisheng’s next chapter at Luxshare Precision.
Asia Leaders
Tatsuki Fujimoto Writes Like the Internet Feels
A FigureAsia long-form profile of Tatsuki Fujimoto, examining how the 2025 work changed the terms of manga, international reach and creative control.
Asia Leaders
George Kurian Has Made NetApp Relevant to AI. Now Data Readiness Must Pay
George Kurian has moved NetApp from a storage incumbent to an intelligent data infrastructure contender. Fiscal 2027 will show whether AI demand can widen that opportunity.
Asia Leaders
Yuen Kuan Moon Has Repriced Singtel Around Digital Infrastructure. Now the Capital Must Work Harder
Yuen Kuan Moon has moved Singtel beyond a conventional telecoms model by recycling mature assets and scaling digital infrastructure. His next challenge is to turn greater strategic exposure into durable returns without weakening the core networks.
Asia Leaders
Zou Zhinong Found a Fortune in the Connectors Behind the Cloud
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zou Zhinong’s next chapter at TFC Optical Communication.
Asia Leaders
Hyundai Is Being Designed for a Post-Commodity Car Market
A FigureAsia examination of how Euisun Chung is positioning Hyundai Motor Group for the next phase of automotive.
Asia Leaders
Ririek Adriansyah Is Rewiring Telkom Indonesia Around Data
A FigureAsia examination of how Ririek Adriansyah is positioning Telkom Indonesia for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Jensen Huang’s Real Advantage Is Not the Chip
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Jensen Huang’s next chapter at Nvidia.
Asia Leaders
NAVER Is Defending Its Home Market With Its Own AI
A FigureAsia examination of how Choi Soo-yeon is positioning NAVER for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Jensen Huang Turned Nvidia’s Chip Lead Into National Infrastructure. Japan Will Test the Economics
Nvidia’s record growth has given Jensen Huang the power to define whole AI systems. Japan’s new national physical-AI infrastructure will show whether that platform can create industrial value beyond the data centre.
Asia Leaders
Demis Hassabis Raised $2.1 Billion to Industrialise AI Drug Design. The Clinic Has Yet to Validate the Engine
Demis Hassabis has given Isomorphic Labs the capital and computing ambition of a technology platform. The harder test is whether its drug candidates can survive the slower economics of human biology.
Asia Leaders
Cai Huabo Wants Longsys to Own More of the Memory Stack
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Cai Huabo’s next chapter at Longsys Electronics.
Asia Leaders
Anthony Tan Has Taken Grab Beyond Survival. The Next Contest Is for Financial Discipline
Grab’s first full-year profit changed the conversation around Southeast Asia’s leading platform. Anthony Tan’s next task is to make growth, credit and consolidation reinforce one another.
Asia Leaders
Neal Mohan Turned Video Podcasts Into a Premium Habit. YouTube Must Prove the Subscription Lift
Neal Mohan is using video podcasts to deepen YouTube's subscription proposition while preserving free discovery and creator payouts. The next proof is whether heavy listening produces durable, profitable members.
Asia Leaders
Sangita Reddy Helped Build Apollo Into an Integrated Health Platform. Its Demerger Must Prove the Parts Are Worth More
Apollo Hospitals is preparing to demerge a profitable but still low-margin digital and pharmacy platform. Sangita Reddy's next test is turning structural separation into better capital discipline while preserving the patient links that gave the integrated group its advantage.
Asia Leaders
e& Wants to Outgrow the Meaning of Telecom
A FigureAsia examination of how Hatem Dowidar is positioning e& for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Forrest Li Is Taking Monee Beyond Shopee. The Credit Engine Must Work Without Marketplace Signals
Monee is becoming a larger source of growth for Sea. Forrest Li must prove that its underwriting can travel beyond the group’s commerce ecosystem without weakening asset quality or encouraging borrowers to take unsuitable debt.
Asia Leaders
Eric Yuan Is Turning Zoom Into an AI Revenue Platform. Common Room Must Make the Expansion Credible
Zoom’s enterprise revenue is growing modestly while margins remain strong. Eric Yuan is using AI and an acquisition to pursue a larger share of sales work, but customers will demand measurable pipeline results and disciplined data use.
Asia Leaders
Prabhakar Raghavan Is Guiding Google’s Technology After Running Search. AI Is Rewriting the Business He Helped Scale
Prabhakar Raghavan moved from leading Google’s Knowledge and Information organisation to advising the company as Chief Technologist. His technical judgement now matters as AI turns search from a list of links into an answer and action layer.
Asia Leaders
Kakao Must Become Trustworthy Before It Becomes Bigger
A FigureAsia examination of how Chung Shin-a is positioning Kakao for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Bruce Cheng Saw the Power-Electronics Economy Before It Had a Name
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Bruce Cheng’s next chapter at Delta Electronics.
Asia Leaders
Yejin Choi Is Challenging AI’s Scale-at-All-Costs Economics. Smaller Models Must Win Beyond the Lab
Yejin Choi’s work questions the assumption that the largest model should perform every task. Her alternative—smarter algorithms, specialised systems and pluralistic design—could lower AI costs if it proves robust in real organisations and languages.
Asia Leaders
Jay Chaudhry Bought Red Canary to Move Zscaler Into Security Operations. Integration Must Justify the Margin Cost
Zscaler’s annual recurring revenue is growing 25 per cent with help from Red Canary. Jay Chaudhry now has to prove that acquiring a people-intensive security service strengthens the platform rather than complicating its economics.
Asia Leaders
Ong Ye Kung’s S$2.5 Billion Research Bet Must Connect to Healthier SG
Singapore is committing S$2.5 billion to translational and clinical research while expanding Healthier SG and ageing capacity. Ong Ye Kung must link discovery, primary-care incentives and measurable reductions in hospital demand.
Asia Leaders
Tokyo Electron Sits at the Quiet Center of Toshiki Kawai’s Chip Boom
A FigureAsia examination of how Toshiki Kawai is positioning Tokyo Electron for the next phase of semiconductors.
Asia Leaders
Samsung’s AI Problem Has Become Jay Y. Lee’s Defining Test
A FigureAsia examination of how Jay Y. Lee is positioning Samsung for the next phase of consumer technology.
Asia Leaders
Robin Li Has Waited Two Decades for Baidu’s AI Advantage to Arrive
A FigureAsia examination of how Robin Li is positioning Baidu for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Sony Turned Fragmentation Into an Entertainment Advantage
A FigureAsia examination of how Kenichiro Yoshida is positioning Sony for the next phase of consumer technology.
Asia Leaders
Suchi Saria Put Predictive AI Into 20 Hospitals. The Next Sale Depends on Operational Returns
Suchi Saria’s clinical AI has evidence of adoption and improved sepsis outcomes. Its 2026 test is whether those gains can be reproduced across Asian health systems with different data, workflows and economics.
Asia Leaders
Lim Chow Kiat Is Building GIC for a World That Cannot Be Forecast. The Price Is More Selectivity
Lim Chow Kiat is adapting GIC to geopolitical fragmentation, AI disruption and climate risk through granular investing and stronger cross-asset leadership. The strategy depends on liquidity, selectivity and institutional patience.
Asia Leaders
Jack Ma’s Most Important Role May Be the One He No Longer Holds
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Jack Ma’s next chapter at Alibaba Group.
Asia Leaders
Pierre Chen Collects Art but Built His Fortune on Tiny Components
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Pierre Chen’s next chapter at Yageo.
Asia Leaders
Fei-Fei Li’s $1 Billion Spatial-AI Bet Runs Into the Physics Problem
Fei-Fei Li has raised $1 billion to commercialise spatial intelligence. World Labs’ harder task is moving from compelling 3D output to reliable simulation.
Asia Leaders
Nadav Zafrir Bought Four Pieces of an AI Security Stack. Check Point Must Turn Them Into Growth
Check Point has accelerated acquisitions under Nadav Zafrir to close gaps around AI and cloud security. The test is whether one operating platform emerges quickly enough to improve product growth without sacrificing margins or repurchase discipline.
Asia Leaders
David Sun Proved a Garage Can Become a Global Memory Business
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining David Sun’s next chapter at Kingston Technology.
Asia Leaders
Sanjiv Puri Has Made ITC More Focused. The Consumer Business Must Now Prove It Can Carry More Weight
Sanjiv Puri has sharpened ITC through the hotels demerger and a broader consumer portfolio. The next phase depends on turning double-digit FMCG growth into returns strong enough to reduce reliance on cigarettes.
Asia Leaders
Renewable Power Is Being Built at Adani Scale
A FigureAsia examination of how Amit Singh is positioning Adani Green Energy for the next phase of energy technology.
Asia Leaders
Eric Yuan Has Restored Zoom’s Growth. AI Must Become More Than a Meeting Feature
Eric Yuan has repositioned Zoom as an AI-first system of action. The next test is converting product adoption into sustained enterprise expansion without losing simplicity.
Asia Leaders
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber Is Building ADNOC for an Energy Transition That Adds Before It Subtracts
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is turning ADNOC, XRG and Masdar into a single thesis about energy security, industrial power and decarbonisation. Its credibility will be determined by capital allocation, not rhetoric.
Asia Leaders
Sanjay Mehrotra Is Rebuilding Micron's Geography. A $250 Billion US Pledge Still Depends on Asia
Sanjay Mehrotra has expanded Micron's US investment plan beyond $250 billion while accelerating construction across Asia. The leadership challenge is no longer announcing factories; it is transferring processes, people and yields across a manufacturing network whose sites must come online in the right sequence.
Asia Leaders
Zhou Qunfei’s Glass Screens Became the Face of the Smartphone Era
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zhou Qunfei’s next chapter at Lens Technology.
Asia Leaders
Sundar Pichai’s $185 Billion Gemini Push Depends on Reinventing Search Without Weakening It
Sundar Pichai has distributed Gemini across Google’s largest products at extraordinary speed. He must now convert conversational search and cloud demand into returns that justify Alphabet’s capital bill.
Asia Leaders
Hock Tan’s $35 Billion AI Platform Moves Broadcom Closer to Its Biggest Customers—and Their Risks
Hock Tan has expanded Broadcom’s custom-chip model into gigawatt-scale infrastructure financed by Apollo and Blackstone. Its power comes with customer, supply and deployment concentration.
Asia Leaders
Anima Anandkumar Joined the UN’s Science Board. AI for Science Needs Standards the World Can Afford
Anima Anandkumar’s 2026 appointment to the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board puts a technical researcher inside a global governance debate. The commercial and policy test is whether AI-assisted science can be verified, reproduced and made accessible across unequal computing markets.
Asia Leaders
Amnon Shashua Took Mobileye Into Humanoid Robots. A $3.8 Billion Write-Down Raises the Standard
Amnon Shashua is using Mobileye's automotive cash flow and artificial-intelligence stack to enter humanoid robotics. The strategic overlap is plausible; the acquisition's governance and commercial hurdles make proof unusually urgent.
Asia Leaders
Sunil Mittal Is Fighting India’s Telecom War With a Wider Map
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Sunil Mittal’s next chapter at Bharti Airtel.
Asia Leaders
William Ding Is Teaching an Old Games Company New AI Tricks
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining William Ding’s next chapter at NetEase.
Asia Leaders
Satya Nadella Is Building a $190 Billion AI Utility, With Scarcity as Both Proof and Warning
Satya Nadella is committing utility-scale capital to Microsoft’s agentic AI platform while reducing headcount. The return will depend on capacity allocation, product usage and disciplined pricing.
Asia Leaders
Keyence’s Takemitsu Takizaki Built a Sales Machine Around Invisible Factory Problems
A FigureAsia examination of how Takemitsu Takizaki is positioning Keyence for the next phase of industrial technology.
Asia Leaders
Masayoshi Son Is Steering $64.6 Billion Towards OpenAI. SoftBank’s Balance Sheet Is the Constraint
Masayoshi Son’s latest OpenAI tranche makes SoftBank a more concentrated AI holding company, with its financial policy and Japan execution under scrutiny.
Asia Leaders
Infosys Is Learning to Charge for AI Outcomes
A FigureAsia examination of how Salil Parekh is positioning Infosys for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Jitendra Malik Is Putting Sensorimotor Learning Before Language. Robotics Must Build Its Own Data Economy
Jitendra Malik helped shape modern computer vision and now presses AI toward embodied learning. The next advance will depend on shared benchmarks, useful simulation and fleets that turn physical experience into reliable generalisation.
Asia Leaders
Battery Growth Has to Become Profitable Again at LG Energy Solution
A FigureAsia examination of how Kim Dong-myung is positioning LG Energy Solution for the next phase of energy technology.
Asia Leaders
Customer Service Is Becoming an AI Industry Just as NICE Changes Leaders
A FigureAsia examination of how Scott Russell is positioning NICE for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
Waleed Al-Mogbel Is Turning Al Rajhi Into a Digital Bank at National Scale
A FigureAsia examination of how Waleed Al-Mogbel is positioning Al Rajhi Bank for the next phase of banking.
Asia Leaders
Lei Jun Wants Xiaomi to Be Taken Seriously as a Carmaker
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Lei Jun’s next chapter at Xiaomi.
Asia Leaders
Singtel Is Turning Regional Sprawl Into Digital Infrastructure
A FigureAsia examination of how Yuen Kuan Moon is positioning Singtel for the next phase of telecommunications.
Asia Leaders
Assaf Rappaport Is Turning Wiz’s Security Graph Into an Agent Control Layer. Automation Must Remain Reversible
Wiz can give AI assistants live context from its cloud-security graph. Assaf Rappaport’s opportunity is to make security teams faster; his risk is allowing an agent to convert a mistaken finding into a damaging production change.
Asia Leaders
Can Chen Tianshi Build China’s Answer to Nvidia
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Chen Tianshi’s next chapter at Cambricon Technologies.
Asia Leaders
TikTok Became a Diplomatic Asset Just as Liang Rubo Inherited ByteDance
A FigureAsia examination of how Liang Rubo is positioning ByteDance for the next phase of technology.
Asia Leaders
BYD’s Next Test Is Bigger Than Beating the Global Carmakers
A FigureAsia examination of how Wang Chuanfu is positioning BYD for the next phase of automotive.
Asia Leaders
Natarajan Chandrasekaran Is Wiring Tata From Chips to AI Agents. Capital Discipline Must Hold the Stack Together
Natarajan Chandrasekaran is positioning Tata across the physical and software layers of artificial intelligence. The strategy could deepen India’s technology capacity, but only if demand, energy and execution keep pace with investment.
Asia Leaders
Daphne Koller Is Turning Insitro’s AI Platform Into Drug Candidates. Biology Still Sets the Clock
Daphne Koller has spent years building a machine-learning company around human biology. In 2026, insitro’s partnerships and preclinical programmes are beginning to test whether its data advantage can produce medicines rather than promising hypotheses.
Asia Leaders
Canon Is Finding New Precision Beyond the Camera
A FigureAsia examination of how Fujio Mitarai is positioning Canon for the next phase of consumer technology.
Asia Leaders
Rajesh Magow Is Turning MakeMyTrip From a Booking Site Into India's Travel Operating Layer
Rajesh Magow is using AI and selective acquisitions to widen MakeMyTrip's role. The test is whether one platform can improve every stage of Indian travel.
Asia Leaders
Qi Shi Built a Brokerage for China’s Screen-First Investors
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Qi Shi’s next chapter at East Money Information.
Asia Leaders
Ken Xie Has Been Preparing Fortinet for the Borderless Security Era
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Ken Xie’s next chapter at Fortinet.
Asia Leaders
Kia’s Reinvention Is Now Song Ho-sung’s Operating System
A FigureAsia examination of how Song Ho-sung is positioning Kia for the next phase of automotive.
Asia Leaders
Aravind Srinivas’s Browser Ambition Depends on Winning the Enterprise Trust Search Never Required
Aravind Srinivas is pushing Perplexity from answer engine to action layer. Comet Enterprise must prove that autonomous browsing can be governed at scale.
Asia Leaders
Liu Debing Took China’s Zhipu AI to Market Before the Dust Settled
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Liu Debing’s next chapter at Zhipu AI.
Asia Leaders
Satya Nadella Made Microsoft the Corporate World’s Default Route Into AI
A FigureAsia examination of how Satya Nadella turned Microsoft’s enterprise franchise into the world’s most powerful distribution system for artificial intelligence, and why his next test is trust rather than reach.