How Did David Cheriton Attain His Wealth?

David Cheriton is infamous as the wealthiest college professor in the world. But how did he attain staggering figures for his net worth?

Well, his story is an inspiring one, as Cheriton was an average college professor at Stanford when he decided to take a chance at his students’ project. Today, let’s learn about David Cheriton net worth.

Furthermore, Prof. Cheriton’s story is a testament to the famous saying, “Gambling is not about money; it’s about the thrill of the risk.” Little did the now-a-billionaire Canadian know he was investing in one of the century’s most significant innovations that would soon transcend him from Stanford to Silicon Valley.

How Did David Cheriton Attain His Wealth?

The easter eggs of how David Cheriton amassed such a humongous fortune lie in the pivotal decision he took in 1998. During the day, Cheriton held a professorship in computer science at Stanford University.

During his tenure at Stanford, a few significant events followed one after another. He led a team of computer researchers working to develop the V operating system.

Around the same time, Cheriton came across a genius Ph.D. prospect, Andy Bechtolsheim, who missed classes to work on his projects.

Andy developed a networked system of computer workstations, which at that time was named the Stanford University Network, a.k.a. the SUN. Later, Bechtolsheim dropped out of his Ph. D. program and founded a company named Sun Microsystems that hit $1 billion in revenue nine years after its birth.

Professor Cheriton had a 10% stake at Sun Microsystem, which allowed him to scale his pay cheque from $100,000 to $22 million. Then, the second major event followed by the late 90s’ that would soon terraform the internet and David Cheriton net worth.

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The Birth Of Google: Investor Professor

The two new prospects at Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were preparing their Ph.D. project, thought of a way to index and calibrate the webpage quality. Thus, they developed an algorithm that detected the content quality of web pages and named it ‘PageRank.’

Contrary to their expectations, their thesis blew up the IT world, and their document became the most downloaded research article in the history of the internet in that time frame. Hence, they decided to professionalize their thesis, which led them to knock on Prof. Cheriton’s door.

They were well-known for David’s financial prosperity from investing in Sun Microsystem, which is now identified as Granite Systems. To Larry and Sergey’s surprise, Cheriton and Bechtolsheim wrote a check of $100,000, each impressed by the youngins’ initiation.

Larry and Sergey founded Google, which was initially funded by $200,000 from their professor and Bechtolsheim. The company now has a market cap nearing $2 trillion and is likely to further expand in the coming days.

David Cheriton made approximately 10 billion dollars, skyrocketing him to the top of the world’s wealthiest academics list.

Similarly, you might want to read about 2024 Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s Net Worth.

David Cheriton Net Worth: Investments in Start-ups

Besides Google, Cheriton has been actively deploying his investments all over the broad spectrum of technology business. He has circulated over $50 million of his wealth to startups and up-and-coming tech innovations.

The Billionaire Professor was also an early investor at VMware, a cloud computing software company, which was later acquired for a whopping price of $625 million. Moreover, alongside Andy, he founded a video streaming software, Kealia, which later sold off for $120 million.

In addition, David and Andy co-founded the networking tech company Arista Network (ANET), which stands at a market cap of $30 billion today.

David owns $2.5 billion stakes in ANET and has sold off more than half a billion shares to the external circuit. Thus, more than luck, it’s David’s wisdom in identifying the possible startups with potential that has placed him on the pedestal of one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

What Does David Cheriton Do in 2023?

Anyone would guess this 72-year-old billionaire professor to be leading a lavish lifestyle that his massive fortune grants him. However, he would rather keep it simple as he still lectures at Stanford University.

Unlike fellow billionaires, Cheriton still cruises in a 2012 Honda Odyssey, an upgrade to his previous car, a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon.

David Cheriton’s net worth stands at a whopping figure of $11.9 billion, yet his stance towards life has stayed the same as during the late nineties when he was yet to secure a check valued more than a hundred thousand dollars.

Despite his massive net worth and the noise he made in the investing world, Professor Cheriton still thrives off the same office, phone number, and campus email address. A man of class indeed!

FAQS

Q: How did David Cheriton make his money?

A: David Cheriton made his wealth by investing in Google and founding companies such as Arista and Granite Systems.

Q: How much is David Cheriton worth?

A: David Cheriton’s net worth is $11.9 billion, as per Forbes.

Q: Who is the richest professor in the world?

A: Besides David Cheriton, professor Hasso Plattner is the richest professor in the world, with a net worth of $14 Billion.