Jay Y. Lee, known in Korea as Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung since October 2022, is ranked No. 95 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, tied with Cyrus Poonawalla, with a net worth of $27 billion.
Lee Jae-yong was born on June 23, 1968, in Washington, D.C., to Lee Kun-hee and Hong Ra-hee. He went to Kyungbock High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University and an MBA from Keio University in Japan. He is fluent in Korean, English and Japanese.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 95 (tied with Cyrus Poonawalla), with $27 billion
- Source of wealth: the Lee family’s holdings in Samsung companies, including 11% of Samsung SDS
Career at Samsung
- 1991: he joined Samsung and served as vice president of strategic planning and as “Chief Customer Officer”, a post created for him
- December 2009: he became chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics, reviving his prospects of succeeding his father
- December 2012: he became vice chairman of Samsung
- October 2022: he became chairman
The 2017 Conviction and Pardon
- January 2017: special prosecutors accused him of bribery, embezzlement and perjury in an influence-peddling case that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye
- August 2017: a Seoul court found him guilty and sentenced him to five years in prison; in February 2018 the Seoul High Court cut the sentence to two and a half years, suspended
- 2021–2022: the US Chamber of Commerce and Korean business groups urged a pardon, and in August 2022 President Yoon Suk Yeol pardoned him, citing Samsung’s importance to the economy
The 2025 Acquittal
Separately, South Korea’s Supreme Court on July 17, 2025, upheld lower-court rulings that acquitted Lee of stock manipulation, unfair trading and accounting fraud connected with the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, ending a case that began with his 2020 indictment, according to news reports.
Family
He is the cousin of CJ Group chairman Lee Jay-hyun and Shinsegae Group CEO Chung Yong-jin.
Why It Matters
Samsung is one of the largest companies in South Korea, and Lee’s leadership of it, together with his legal history, makes him one of the best-known business leaders in Asia.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: Jay Y. Lee (centre left), then vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, September 15, 2016. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India / Wikimedia Commons (GODL-India)
