Richest Man in Vietnam Reinforces Risky $8 Billion Wager on EVs
Pham Nhat Vuong has few vehicles to show for the massive sums he and his Vietnamese conglomerate have spent building VinFast, the carmaker that’s put off plans for an IPO.
Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong at the ceremony marking VinFast’s initial shipment of electric SUVs to the US in November.
Photographer: Linh Pham/BloombergIt’s a familiar story: A business mogul parlaying much of his fortune into a massive bet on electric vehicles, only to fall on hard times.
Pham Nhat Vuong is among the latest to take after Elon Musk, the PayPal mafia member who made it through what he famously described as Tesla Inc.’s “production hell.” Other examples include James Dyson, the household-appliance billionaire; Jia Yueting, founder of the Netflix of China; and Hui Ka Yan, the embattled property tycoon behind China Evergrande Group.