Curated playlist

American chief executives in technology

Elon MuskIn 2001, Elon Musk traveled to Moscow twice to buy missiles, hoping to launch a plant greenhouse to Mars.
Mark ZuckerbergIn January 2024, Mark Zuckerberg turned to families of harmed children at a Senate hearing and apologized.
MC HammerMC Hammer started out as an 11-year-old selling baseballs in a parking lot. The Oakland A's owner hired him on the spot.
Bill GatesBill Gates and Paul Allen wrote software for a computer they did not have. Their Altair demo worked the first time.
Eric SchmidtEric Schmidt ran Google while taking a base salary of just $1 a year. That pay lasted from 2004 through 2010.
Larry PageLarry Page, the co-founder of Google, once held a cheque for $100,000 that was made out to a company that did not exist. Andy Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, wrote it to "Google, Inc." before anyone had filed the…
Sergey BrinSergey Brin, co-founder of Google, helped build a search tool that grew faster than its makers expected. His partner Larry Page later recalled the moment the project began to feel real: "Pretty soon, we had 10,000 searches a day. And we…
Steve JobsSteve Jobs died on the 5th of October 2011, and he had arranged one last gesture for the people who came to remember him. At the memorial held at Stanford University, every guest received a small brown box as a farewell gift from him.…
Michael BloombergMichael Bloomberg was on the ballot in New York City's Republican mayoral primary when voting opened on the morning of the 11th of September 2001. Later that day, officials postponed the primary because of the attacks on the city. The…
Satya NadellaOn the 4th of February 2014, Microsoft announced that Satya Nadella would become its chief executive. He was the third person to hold that job, following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. The choice put a Hyderabad-born engineer at the head of…
Gordon MooreMoore's law began as a ten-year forecast that Gordon Moore wrote for a magazine. He never meant it as a law.
Billy McFarlandBilly McFarland sold a luxury island weekend, and the guests who flew to Great Exuma in the Bahamas found tents and pre-packaged sandwiches. They had been promised lavish villas and fine meals. The festival, planned for April 2017, was…
Andrew NgA neural network taught itself to recognize cats from YouTube videos. Andrew Ng cofounded Google Brain.
Jensen HuangJensen Huang founded Nvidia in a Denny's booth, where he once worked as a dishwasher. Three engineers pooled $600.
Gabe NewellGabe Newell, the president and majority owner of Valve Corporation, has lived mostly at sea since the COVID-19 pandemic. He is an American video game developer and businessman, and he co-founded the company he now controls. His path to…
Jeff BezosJeff Bezos read a single statistic in the spring of 1994. Web usage, it said, was growing at 2,300 percent a year. Within months he had walked away from a senior job on Wall Street to sell books over the internet. He warned many of his…
Sal KhanSal Khan appeared on the cover of Forbes in 2012 beneath a bold tagline: "The $1 Trillion Opportunity." The phrase did not describe a gadget or a start-up with a flashy product. It described free lessons, recorded by one teacher and open…
Alexis OhanianAlexis Ohanian has a plaque in his honor at Booth 19 of a Waffle House in Charlottesville, Virginia. It reads: "Site of Alexis Ohanian's Waffle House Epiphany." A division manager named Derick Moore had it installed to mark the moment.…
Mark CubanIn 2002, Mark Cuban told the world that the NBA's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush, "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen." The restaurant chain took offense. Its management answered with an invitation to prove the point. Cuban…
Palmer LuckeyPalmer Luckey once built a virtual reality headset meant to kill the person wearing it. Announced in November 2022 as a tribute to the anime Sword Art Online, it appeared to be a modified Meta Quest Pro. Several explosive charges were…