Who is David Cheriton, the teacher who became a multimillionaire for helping two students

Imagine for a second being a university professor, making an investment and years later becoming one of the richest men in the world: although it seems a bit fanciful, you can boast about all of that David Cheritona man who appears on the list of millionaires of Forbes.

The Canadian, born on March 29, 1951 in Vancouver, is a historic professor of computer science at Stanford University. At 73 years old, Cheriton continues to be a leading scientist in the world of computing and a renowned businessman in the technology market.

Professor, investor, philanthropist, are all words that describe Cheriton. Over the years, David gained knowledge of the computer science universe and was able to create different companies linked to this field, such as Arista Networks, Granite Systems and Kealia. However, the founding and sale of all of them are only part of the story of how the businessman built his fortune.

Likewise, it should be noted that the outcomes of life are strange and the closing of different stages are the beginning of others: the millionaire’s desire when he was young was to dedicate himself to music, but he was rejected at the University of Alberta, which meant the beginning of a great story.

How David Cheriton started his fortune

Disillusioned by not being able to continue with his desire, the current millionaire dedicated himself to completing a degree in mathematics at the University of British Columbia. Later, Cheriton decided to expand his knowledge to a more technological area and especially to research: he received a doctorate in computing at the University of Waterloo, and in search of funding to cover research was how he came to Stanford. .

At said University, where he continues to teach, the “Millionaire Professor” met the great partner of his life, Andy Bechtolsheim, with whom together they embarked on research and the creation of companies that they later sold. Together they created Granite Systemssold for US$220 million to Cisco, Kealiaa startup dedicated to server design sold to Sun Microsystems in 2004, and Arista Networksa data networking company.

One day, in the middle of this entire investment process, the Cheriton and Bechtolstein duo met two young Stanford students who presented them with a great project. Were Larry Page and Sergey Brinowners and creators of Google, who, knowing the success of Granite, went to seek help from the renowned professor. In August 1998, with Granite sold and the coffers full of money, Cherinton and Bechtolstein invested $200,000 in the project that was still in its infancy.

These types of bets in the development of science turned the scientist into an expert in identifying large market opportunities and building the necessary architectures to address them: “If you provide real value to the world and do it in a sensible way, then the market rewards you,” the millionaire professor exclaimed some time later in a note for Forbes.

In this way, with that “small” large sum of money, the duo Page and Brin embarked on the successful world of Google, which very shortly after transformed into the conglomerate of companies that we know as Alphabetone of the five largest information companies with Manzana, Goal, amazon and Microsoft.

This is how Cheriton was fundamental and decisive in one of the companies that moves the most money in the world to this day. His knowledge and vision for opportunities made him one of the richest men in the world thanks to his bet on Google. Over the years, the professor continued to invest in science and financed at least 20 companies. In addition, he made donations of millions of dollars to the University of Waterloo, British Columbia and Stanford, to continue developing research related to the world of computing.

David Cheriton net worth in 2024

The Stanford professor continues to be one of the most prominent millionaires in the world according to the iconic Forbes magazine. Cheriton currently has an estimated net worth of 12.6 billion dollarsthus occupying position 156 in the prestigious ranking made up by the magazine.

David Cheriton is considered one of the most important technology billionaires in the world, although he chose to live a discreet and frugal life, despite his great wealth.