David Cheriton

David Ross Cheriton is a Canadian computer scientist, mathematician, businessman, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. He is a computer science professor at Stanford University, where he founded and leads the Distributed Systems Group.

  • “Professor Billionaire” David Cheriton, who teaches at Stanford University, made his fortune thanks to an early investment in Google.
  • Cheriton and Andreas von Bechtolsheim (also now a billionaire) each invested $100,000 in Google when it was just getting started.
  • The pair cofounded 3 companies: Arista Networks (IPO in 2014), Granite Systems (sold to Cisco in 1996) and Kealia (sold to Sun Microsystems in 2004).
  • Cheriton resigned from Arista’s board in March 2014 and has been unloading his stock; he still owns nearly 10% through a trust for his children.

David Cheriton Stanford University