Chen Tianqiao

Chen Tianqiao ; born 1973) is a Chinese businessman who founded Shanda Group.

Early life and education Chen was born in Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province, China in 1973 and grew up near Shanghai with his younger brother Danian. That same year, Chen was second on the Hurun Report's "rich list", was voted China Central Television's "Rising Business Star", and was featured in MIT Technology Reviews Innovators Under 35 list.

Shanda Group went private in early 2012, with Chen, his wife, and his brother keeping a combined 57% stake.

In November 2014, Shanda Interactive completed the sale of its controlling interest in Shanda Games, and Chen resigned as a director and chairman of the company's board. It also had property operations in China and North America and stakes in companies such as Sotheby's.

Ranked on various rich lists, Chen personally had $4 billion in net value in 2017 and was ranked as the 93rd richest person in China, according to the Hurun Report.

In 2018, Chen purchased 500,000 acres in Oregon. The same year, the Committee of 100 gave Chen an award for Lifetime Achievement as Tech Entrepreneur.

In 2026, Chen said he and Shanda Group had committed more than US$2 billion to artificial intelligence research, including US$1 billion earmarked for data processing and computing infrastructure. He described the goal as building AI systems capable of generating new knowledge and forecasting complex events through long-term memory, causal reasoning, and predictive modeling.

Politics According to China Youth Daily, Chen joined the Chinese Communist Party at age 18 and was elected to the central committee of Communist Youth League of China in Shanghai. In 2008, Chen was appointed to the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). In 2013, Chen was appointed to the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC. He resigned from the CPPCC in 2018.

Personal life Chen is married to Qianqian "Chrissy" Luo. They are currently residents of Menlo Park, California.

Chen has said publicly that he began experiencing panic attacks in 2004, shortly after Shanda's Nasdaq listing, and that a second, more severe episode in 2009 contributed to his decision to step back from running the company. He described these experiences as a motivation for his later funding of brain research.