meeting DIOSDADO ‘DADO’ BANATAO: ‘The Filipino Bill Gates’

I met today DADO BANATAO at the St. Paul University Centennial Celebration held at the SMX Mall of Asia.  He is married to a fellow Paulinian.  


They currently live in Atherton, California in a $20 million house, and estimated to have a $5 billion fortune. According to those who knew him, he built his wealth from a computer chip he invented which is now used by every computer in the world market.

He had been to the Philippines several times, trying to interest tycoons like Jaime Zobel de Ayala to join hands with him. He is in fact, a trustee of Ayala International Bank.

He holds a B.S.E.E., cum laude, from the Mapua Institute of Technology in the Philippines and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University. 

"Banatao is most known for introducing the first single-chip graphical user interface accelerator that made computers work a lot faster and for helping develop the Ethernet controller chip that made Internet possible. In 1989, he pioneered the local bus concept for personal computers and in the following year developed the First Windows accelerator chip. Intel is now using the chips and technologies developed by Banatao. He now runs his own semiconductor company, Mostron and Chips & Technology, which is based in California’s Silicon Valley." - Phil. Sentinel