Eric Schmidt
.jpg) Schmidt at the G8 summit in Deauville, 2011. Photo: Guillaume Paumier, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| |
| Net worth | $35.5 billion Forbes 2026 list, March 24, 2026[1] |
|---|---|
| World rank | 60th (Forbes 2026)[1] |
| Source of wealth | |
| Companies | Google (CEO 2001–2011, executive chairman 2011–2015); Relativity Space (CEO since 2025) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Born | April 27, 1955, Falls Church, Virginia, US |
| Education | Princeton University (BSE); University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Running Google |
| Net worth figures are estimates by the source named and change every day. | |
Eric Schmidt is an American businessman and engineer who was chief executive of Google from 2001 to 2011 and its executive chairman until 2015.[2] On the Forbes 2026 billionaires list, a snapshot taken on March 24, 2026, he was 60th in the world with an estimated $35.5 billion.[1]
Net worth
- 2011: about $7 billion, 136th on the Forbes list.[2]
- March 2026: $35.5 billion, 60th on the Forbes list.[1]
His fortune comes mainly from Google shares.[2]
How the fortune was made
Schmidt studied at Princeton and earned a master's degree and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.[2] As an intern at Bell Labs in 1975 he co-wrote Lex, a Unix programming tool.[2] He joined Sun Microsystems in 1983 and was chief executive of Novell from 1997 to 2001, before joining Google as chief executive, working alongside founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.[2] He was executive chairman of Alphabet from 2015 to 2017.[2]
He runs the family office Hillspire and co-founded the venture firm Innovation Endeavors in 2010.[2] In 2023 he joined the group that bought the Washington Commanders football team, and in March 2025 he took a controlling stake in the rocket maker Relativity Space and became its chief executive.[2]
Giving
In 2006 he and his wife, Wendy, set up the Schmidt Family Foundation for the sustainable use of natural resources; it funds the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which runs ocean research ships.[2] In 2017 he founded the philanthropic venture Schmidt Futures.[2]
Photos
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Eric Schmidt with Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, 2008. Photo: Joi Ito from Inbamura, Japan, CC BY 2.0
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All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; click a photo for its full credit and license.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Forbes, "Eric Schmidt", 2026 World's Billionaires list (snapshot of March 24, 2026), read November 3, 2026. Net worth is a Forbes estimate.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Wikipedia, "Eric Schmidt", read November 3, 2026. Billionaire Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.