A billionaire at 30, Chen was the young founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a game developer company from China. Just over a decade ago China’s largest internet company was not Alibaba or Tencent, it was this game developer that was the shark in the industry.
 
Suddenly in 2012, Chen took his Nasdaq-listed company private and left China, completely disappearing from public view henceforth.

Chen, now 40-years-old living in Singapore, has resurfaced to talk about his plans for the near future. He explained that he had to give up his venture due to stress induced panic attacks in his 30s. This new path redirected him to understanding the human brain.
 
His experience ultimately led him to a new path. His own mental condition combined with his Buddhist beliefs, convinced him to focus on research of the human brain.
 
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, $1 billion was set aside by Chen, out of $2.4 billion of his personal fortune. Out of this investment, $115 million is already given by Chen and his wife to California Institute of Technology towards the development of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. They plan to invest the rest of the money to fund young scientists and establish another Chen University in the U.S.
 
At the time when Chen created the successful gaming company, others were focussed on internet portals. He started his company with his younger brother Chrissy with their own savings of $60,000.
 
They started their career’s big hit with buying distribution rights to the South Korean role-playing game- Legend of Mir II. Revenue surged. The returns from this investment gave Shanda enough money to start developing in-house games. The games made by Shanda include the famous game, the World of Legend.
 
Profit started shooting through the roof as online gaming in internet cafes emerged as a trend among Chinese teenagers raising a whopping $152 million for the company in a Nasdaq initial public offering in May 2004.
 
Chen has said that he wanted to be the Disney of China, but life as a public company owner turned out to be very taxing. The many ups and downs proved to be stressful to a point where Chen had to leave it all behind.
 
It started in 2004 when Chen felt he was getting a heart-attack while on a flight from Shanghai to Beijing. He rushed to a hospital soon after landing and found out that his heart was in perfect condition. According to the doctors, the pain in his chest was a symptom of a panic attack.
 
He thought he won’t return to the business, however, he returned as soon as he started feeling better after taking all the medications.
 
Chen’s ambitions kept growing and so did the stress. In 2009, he suffered a second attack, when he felt so weak and shaky that he couldn’t even move. He felt it was his lowest moment emotionally.
 
This time his wife urged him to let it go and look forward towards other opportunities that lie ahead. They relocated to Singapore in 2010 and started the withdrawal process from the business. IN 2011, they took Shanda Interactive private for $2.3 billion. Chen resigned from the board eventually after selling their stock in Shanda Games.

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