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Korean American entrepreneur Thai Lee has been ranked the fourth-richest self-made woman in the United States, according to Forbes’ 2026 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women.
Lee, founder and CEO of SHI International, has an estimated net worth of $8 billion, moving up one spot from last year’s ranking after her wealth increased by more than $2 billion.
The 67-year-old business leader is one of only a handful of Asian women in Forbes’ top 10. She owns a 60% stake in SHI International, one of the largest privately held information technology providers in the United States.
Born in Bangkok, Thailand, Lee spent much of her childhood in South Korea before immigrating to the United States as a teenager. After earning degrees in biology and economics from Amherst College, she became the first Korean woman to graduate from Harvard Business School, receiving her MBA in 1985.
In 1989, Lee and her then-husband, Leo KoGuan, purchased a small New Jersey software reseller for less than $1 million and renamed it Software House International, or SHI. Over the following decades, the company expanded into cloud computing, data center infrastructure and workplace technology services.
Today, SHI serves more than 20,000 customers worldwide, including Boeing, Johnson & Johnson and AT&T. The company employs more than 5,000 people across 35 offices globally and generates approximately $15 billion in annual revenue.
Technology entrepreneurs accounted for nearly half of Forbes’ top 10 self-made women this year, reflecting the growing influence of the technology sector in creating new wealth. Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei ranked second on the list with an estimated net worth of $15.5 billion, while Epic Systems founder Judy Faulkner ranked third with $9.6 billion.
Lee has previously credited SHI employees for the company’s success and said Buddhist teachings have helped her maintain perspective throughout her career.
“A dollar amount could never accurately convey the respect and admiration I have for the employees of SHI,” Lee told Forbes in an earlier interview.
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