Bill Tai (born 29 May 1964) is a venture capitalist, philanthropist and adjunct professor at Curtin University who is based in Palo Alto, California and Perth, Australia.^{[1] [2][7][8]}

Tai attended the University of Illinois, graduatig with a B.A. in electrical engineering in 1984. He went on to graduate from Harvard University in 1987 with a M.B.A. in business administration, finance and economics.^{[1] [2]}

Tai was also awarded a HonD PhD from Curtin University in Perth, where he is an Adjunct Professor of 'Innovation and Economic Development'.^[5]

Tai was originally educated as a microchip designer and worked for LSI Logic after graduating in in 1984. He went on to work for TSMC in May 1987 where he was awarded badge #A001, helping to found the first large manfacturing plant for what is as of September 2020, one of the Top 10 most valuable companies in the world by market value.^[1]

Between October 1987 and June 1992, Tai worked to establish the semiconductor practice at Alex.

Brown & Sons as their very first chip analyst.

There he positioned Initial public offerin gs (IPOs) of Atmel, Dallas Semiconductor, Cirrus Logic, Zilog and many other companies.^[5][1]

Tai started in venture capital in 1991 with early stage investments leading to twenty two IPOs.^[5] He was co-founder & chairman of Treasure Data, Inc., founding chairman and CEO of iAsiaWorks, founding chairman of IPinfusion and previously held board directorships of 8 publicly listed companies.^[9]

Previously a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners, Tai has been an initial investor in several big tech companies, including TweetDeck/Twitter, Zoom Video Communications, Wish, Canva and ColorGenomics.^[9] He was an early proponent of cryptocurrency, founding the Necker Blockchain Summit and "Bitcoin Mining Lightbulb". He was an advisor on silicon to BitFury and one of the early backers of CryptoKitties.^[9]

In May 2006, Tai cofounded ACTAI Global, where he acts as chairman.

ACTAI is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is dedicated to harnessing the power of community to protect and preserve the ocean and related ecosystems.^[28][9]

ACTAI Global brings together athletes, technologists, conservationists, innovators and artists to combine resources, energies and networks to fuel philanthropic activites around the globe.

The ACTAI Global community is a professional network with a collective passion to work together to bring about positive chage in the world.^[30]

In his spare time, Tai enjoys windsurfing and is especially passionate about kiteboarding, where he was an early regular at Third Avenue in San Francisco Bay, near Silicon Valley. He has introduced hundreds of friends and colleagues to the sport, organizing annual kiteboarding camps in Maui.^[29]

The kiteboarding community includes startup entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson allowing Tai to mix business with pleasure.

He remarked “It’s work-hard, play-hard types with strength, stamina, and willingness to try new things, who take calculated risks repeatedly and fail 99 percent of the time until they hit it.” ^[31]