Meet Elon Musk superfan Leo Koguan, the Singaporean billionaire and physics nerd who claims he’s Tesla’s third-biggest individual shareholder

Nov 9 , 2021

Elon Musk superfan Leo Koguan claims he’s Tesla’s third-biggest individual shareholder. Photo: @KoguanLeo/Twitter

The investor, who’s amassed a Twitter following of Tesla die-hards, once bet nearly everything on stocks in the luxury electric car company during the pandemic

The SHI International chairman met the world’s richest man at SpaceX’s headquarters in 2019 – and discussed physics instead of business with his idol

Tesla has been enjoying a banner year, to say the very least. The electric car maker has propelled its founder Elon Musk to the very top of the financial food chain, with the richest man on the planet having a net worth over US$300 billion.

But the success of his company wouldn’t be possible without those who believed in it in its early days – and among those is fellow billionaire Leo Koguan, who claims to be Tesla’s third-biggest individual shareholder.

So who is the 66-year-old investor and how did he find himself rubbing elbows with Musk?

His business and billions

Billionaire Leo Koguan claims he’s the third largest individual Tesla shareholder. Photo: @isr_sg/Twitter

The Singapore-based Koguan isn’t your usual Musk fanboy, though he likes to refer to himself as such. For starters, Koguan has a net worth of US$9.5 billion, according to Forbes. He made his fortune by founding SHI International, an IT provider which has over 20,000 customers like Boeing and AT&T, and the company started as a software reseller in 1989, for which Koguan and his then-wife Thai Lee paid less than US$1 million for, adds Forbes.

The company now has an annual revenue of around US$11 billion, but Koguan has stepped away from day-to-day dealings and has let Lee run the operations, according to Forbes. Koguan still serves as the chairman.

His top-notch credentials

Billionaire and Elon Musk superfan Leo Koguan graduated from Columbia University and New York Law School. Photo: en.law.pku.edu.cn

Koguan has strong academic credentials behind his business success. He completed his Master’s degree at Columbia University, and then got his law degree from the prestigious New York Law School.