Technology | Google Meet Google's First Investor: A Stanford Academic David Cheriton is worth $1.3B By Matt Cantor Posted Aug 2, 2012 4:31 PM CDT Copied In this Thursday, April 12, 2012, photo, a Google logo is displayed at the headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File) The first person to write a check for Google is still a full-time academic—probably the richest one in the world, notes Forbes: David Cheriton's net worth is $1.3 billion. The computer science professor is an expert investor in tech startups; indeed, the $100,000 check he wrote for Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 is worth a bit more now—some $1 billion in Google shares, writes Ryan Mac. But don't expect to find him on a super yacht. "I’ve been very fortunate in investing, but I still have the brain of a scrounger in terms of spending money," he notes. He drives a 1986 Volkswagen and cuts his own hair. Even as he continues in the startup world—his latest venture speeds up data transfers between servers—he stays off social networks, which he considers a fad, and even Stanford students aren't sure who he is. His guiding principle: "A belief that if you are providing real value to the world and doing it in a sensible way, then the market rewards you," he says. Read These Next Trumps ends trade talks with Canada. Mid Actor Sam Rockwell gets residuals from movie he wasn't in. The Bezos-Sanchez wedding: guest list, cost, the dress, and more. Report an error