TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — If Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) obtains the required number of signatures to run in Taiwan's 2024 presidential election, he will become the richest candidate in Taiwan's history.

At a press conference on Monday (Aug. 28), Gou announced that he would run as an independent candidate, but he must obtain 290,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. If he gains the necessary signatures, Gou would be the wealthiest presidential candidate ever in Taiwan, reported ETtoday.

According to the Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2023, the 72-year-old tycoon has a net worth of US$7.2 billion. This puts him in sixth place in Taiwan and No. 317 in the world.

Forbes pointed out that Guo held the title of the richest man in Taiwan in 2005, 2010, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021, before dropping to sixth place in 2022. Nevertheless, his net worth far exceeds all other Taiwanese presidential candidates, past and present.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists a slightly lower net worth for Gou at US$6.97 billion. This put him at 333rd place among the world's 500 richest people and 4th richest among Taiwanese on the list, trailing Quanta Computer founder Barry Lam (林百里), Huali Industrial founder Zhang Congyuan (張聰淵), and Chang Chun Group co-founder Lin Shu-hong (林書鴻).

In the event Gou is elected president, he would become the richest leader of a democratic country in the world. He would far surpass the current richest democratically elected leader in the world, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has a net worth of over US$909 million.