Andreas Bechtolsheim Founder and owner of the Sun company. Country: Germany

Biography of Andreas von Bechtolsheim

Andreas von Bechtolsheim was born in 1955 in Germany. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. From 1977 to 1982, he continued his education at Stanford University, where he invented his first computer that operated under the Unix operating system. As he expanded his computer network, Bechtolsheim caught the interest of many students.

In 1982, Bechtolsheim received a business proposal from several former Stanford students, Khosla and McNealy. They suggested that he start his own computer company. Thus, in the same year, Sun Microsystems was founded. The name was chosen as an abbreviation of their university computer network.

Over the years, Sun Microsystems' sales grew significantly. By 1988, the company's revenue reached one billion dollars, and by 2003, it had grown to 11.5 billion dollars. Bechtolsheim dedicated himself entirely to his business, leaving the university a few months after founding the company.

In 1995, Bechtolsheim left Sun Microsystems and established a new company called Granite Systems, which specialized in computer hardware, particularly high-speed networks. In 1996, Cisco Systems acquired part of Granite Systems' assets from Bechtolsheim for 220 million dollars. From 1996 to 2003, Bechtolsheim held the position of Vice President of Gigabit Systems Business Unit at Cisco Systems. He eventually left the company to take the helm of the largest computer giant, Kealia, Inc.

Bechtolsheim co-founded Kealia, Inc. with David Cheriton in 2001. In 2004, the company merged with Sun Microsystems, leading Bechtolsheim to once again head the company as its Vice President and Chief Engineer.

Apart from his work in the technology industry, Bechtolsheim is also involved in various investments. In 1998, he invested 100,000 dollars in the development of the internet system, Google. He plans to increase these investments to 1.5 billion dollars in the near future.

Currently, Andreas von Bechtolsheim is one of the wealthiest individuals in Germany, with an estimated capital of 2 billion dollars. According to Forbes, he ranks 605th among the world's richest people.