Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer ofGoogle from 2001 to 2011 and the company's executive chairman from 2011 to 2015.[1] He also was the executive chairman of parent companyAlphabet Inc.[2][3][4] from 2015 to 2017,[1] and technical advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020.[5] Since 2025, he has been the CEO ofRelativity Space, an aerospace manufacturing company.[6] As of 2025, he is one of wealthiest according toBloomberg Billionaires Index with an estimatednet worth ofUS$53.0 billion.[7]
From 1976 to 1980, Schmidt resided at theInternational House Berkeley, where he met his future wife,Wendy Boyle. In 1979, at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, Schmidt earned an EECS M.S. degree for designing and implementing anetwork (Berknet) linking the campus computer center with the CS andEECS departments.[28] There, he also earned a PhD degree in 1982 in EECS;Computer Engineering, with a dissertation about the problems of managing distributed software development and tools for solving these problems.[29]
Early in his career, Schmidt held a series of technical positions withIT companies including Byzromotti Design,Bell Labs (in research and development),[22]Zilog, and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
In 1983, Schmidt joinedSun Microsystems as its first software manager.[22] He rose to become director of software engineering, vice president and general manager of the software products division, vice president of the general systems group, and president of Sun Technology Enterprises.[30]
During his time at Sun, he was the target of two notableApril Fool's Day pranks.[31][32][33] In the first, his office was taken apart and rebuilt on a platform in the middle of a pond, complete with a working phone and workstation on the corporate Ethernet network. The next year, a workingVolkswagen Beetle was taken apart and re-assembled in his office.
In April 1997, Schmidt became the CEO and chairman of the board ofNovell. He presided over a period of decline at Novell where itsIPX protocol was being replaced by open TCP/IP products, while at the same time Microsoft was shipping free TCP/IP stacks in Windows 95, making Novell much less profitable. In 2001, he departed after the acquisition ofCambridge Technology Partners.[11]
In March 2001, Schmidt joined Google's board of directors as chair, and became the company's CEO in August 2001. At Google, Schmidt shared responsibility for Google's daily operations with founders Page and Brin. Prior to the Googleinitial public offering, Schmidt had responsibilities typically assigned to the CEO of a public company and focused on the management of the vice presidents and the sales organization.[35] According to Google, Schmidt's job responsibilities included "building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google's rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remains high while the product development cycle times are kept to a minimum."[36]
Schmidt as executive chair of Google, speaking withNik Gowing
Upon being hired at Google, Eric Schmidt was paid a salary of $250,000 and an annual performance bonus. He was granted 14,331,703 shares of Class B common stock at $0.30 per share and 426,892 shares of Series C preferred stock at purchase price of $2.34.[37]
In 2004, Schmidt and the Google founders agreed to a basesalary of US$1 (which continued through 2010) with other compensation of $557,465 in 2006,[38] $508,763 in 2008, and $243,661 in 2009. He did not receive any additional stock or options in 2009 or 2010.[39][40]Most of his compensation was for "personal security" and charters of private aircraft.[40]
In 2007,PC World ranked Schmidt as the first on its list of the 50 most important people on the Web, along with Google co-founders Page and Brin.[41]
In its 2011 'World's Billionaires' list,Forbes ranked Schmidt as the 136th-richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $7 billion.[42]
On January 20, 2011, Google announced that Schmidt would step down as the CEO of Google but would take new title as executive chairman of the company and act as an adviser to co-founders Page and Brin.[43] Google gave him a $100 million equity award in 2011 when he stepped down as CEO.[44] On April 4, 2011, Page replaced Schmidt as the CEO.[45]
On December 21, 2017, Schmidt announced he would be stepping down as the executive chairman of Alphabet.[46][47] Schmidt stated that "Larry,Sergey,Sundar and I all believe that the time is right in Alphabet's evolution for this transition."[48]
In February 2020, Schmidt left his post as technical advisor of Alphabet after 19 years with the company.[49]
In March 2016, it was announced that Schmidt would chair a new advisory board for the Department of Defense,[50] titled theDefense Innovation Advisory Board.[51] The advisory board serves as a forum connecting mainstays in the technology sector with those in the Pentagon.[52]
To avoid potential conflicts of interest within the role, where Schmidt retained his role as technical adviser to Alphabet, and where Google's bidding for the multi-million dollar Pentagon cloud contract, theJoint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, was ongoing: Schmidt screened emails and other communications, stating, "'There’s a rule: I'm not allowed to be briefed' about Google or Alphabet business as it relates to the Defense Department".[53] He exited the position November 2020.[54]
While working at Google, Schmidt was involved by early 2005[58] in activities[59] that later became the subject of theHigh-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation case that resulted in a settlement of $415 million paid byAdobe,Apple, Google andIntel to employees. In one March, 2007 incident, after receiving a complaint fromSteve Jobs of Apple, Schmidt sent an email to Google's HR department saying; "I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks Eric".[60][61] Schmidt's email led to a recruiter for Google being "terminated within the hour" for not having adhered to the illegal scheme. Under Schmidt, there was a "Do Not Call list" of companies Google would avoid recruiting from.[60] According to a court filing, another 2005[62] email exchange shows Google's human resources director asking Schmidt about sharing its no-cold-call agreements with competitors. Schmidt responded that he preferred it be shared "verbally[,] since I don't want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later?"[59][63]
New America is a non-profit public-policy institute and think tank, founded in 1999. Schmidt succeeded founding chairmanJames Fallows in 2008 and served as chairman until 2016.[71][72]
In July 2020, Schmidt started working with the U.S. government to create a tech college as part of an initiative to educate future coders, cyber-security experts and scientists.[75]
In August 2020, Schmidt launched the podcastReimagine with Eric Schmidt.[76][77] In December 2021, Schmidt joinedChainlink Labs as a strategic advisor.[78] In October 2022, he co-authored a piece titled "America Could Lose the Tech Contest With China" forForeign Affairs with Ylli Bajraktari, former executive director of the U.S.National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.[79] In March 2023, Schmidt testified at aU.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing regarding AI.[80] He has also invested in aerospace-related AI startups, including Rebellion Defense,[81][82] Istari,[83] Swift Beat[84], and White Stork, which developed theMerops counterdrone system.[85][86] In June 2023, Schmidt also invested in Keeta, a startup developing a cross-border payments platform using proprietary ledger technology.[87]
Schmidt has been the chairman ofSandboxAQ, a Palo Alto-based quantum computing and AI company that spun off fromAlphabet Inc. in 2022.[89][90]
In 2023, Schmidt was a part of an investment group led byJosh Harris that purchased theWashington Commanders, an American football team belonging to theNational Football League (NFL), for $6.05 billion.[91] In March 2025, Schmidt took over as CEO ofRelativity Space, an aerospace manufacturing company, after acquiring a controlling stake in the company.[6]
Schmidt has proposed that the easiest way to solve all of the domestic problems of the United States at once is by a stimulus program that rewardsrenewable energy and, over time, attempts to replacefossil fuels with renewable energy.[95]
Schmidt is an investor in Timshel, another start up company associated with Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[99] Timshel is the parent company of The Groundwork.[99]
In 2006, Eric Schmidt andWendy Schmidt established the Schmidt Family Foundation,[100] to support the sustainable use of natural resources.[101] The foundation's subsidiaries include ReMain Nantucket and the Marine Science and Technology Foundation; its main charitable program is the 11th Hour Project. The foundation has also awarded grants to theNatural Resources Defense Council and the Energy Foundation.[102]
Schmidt and his wife also established the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship.[106][107]
The Schmidts, working with Hart Howerton, a San Francisco architectural firm that specializes in large-scale land use, have inaugurated several projects on the island ofNantucket that seek to sustain the unique character of the island and to minimize the impact of seasonal visitation on the island's core community.
In 2009, Eric and Wendy Schmidt endowed the Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund atPrinceton University with $25 million. The Fund's purpose is to support research and technology in the natural sciences and engineering, encouraging collaboration across disciplines.[111][112][113][114] It awarded $1.2 million in grants in 2010 and $1.7 million in grants in 2012.[115][116]
Created in partnership with theRhodes Trust, theSchmidt Science Fellows program is part of a $100 million commitment to drive scientific leadership and interdisciplinary research.[117] The program features a Global Meeting Series including exclusive sessions at world-leading institutions includingOxford,Cambridge,MIT, andHarvard. Fellows receive a stipend to participate in postdoctoral study which differs from their existing expertise.
An initiative ofSchmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, which aims to increase the opportunity for exceptional young people worldwide to serve others throughout their lives. The program, which will find and elevate young people between the ages of 15 and 17 from around the world, will be designed to encourage a lifetime of service and learning by providing support that could include scholarships, career services, and funding opportunities[118]
Publicly Schmidt stated that, as paraphrased byCNN/Money, "there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality."[122] His explanations referenced "Don't Be Evil".[122]
During an interview aired on December 3, 2009, on the CNBC documentary "Inside the Mind of Google," Schmidt was asked, "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?" He replied: "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to thePatriot Act. It is possible that information could be made available to the authorities."[123][124]
At theTechonomy conference on August 4, 2010, Schmidt expressed that technology is good. And he said that the only way to manage the challenges is "much greater transparency and no anonymity." Schmidt also stated that in an era of asymmetric threats, "true anonymity is too dangerous."[125] However, at the 2013Hay Festival, Schmidt expressed concern that sharing of personal information was too rampant and could have a negative effect, particularly on teenagers, stating that "we have never had a generation with a full photographic, digital record of what they did", declaring that "We have a point at which we [Google] forget information we know about you because it is the right thing to do. There are situations in life that it's better that they don't exist."[126]
In 2013, Schmidt stated that the government surveillance in the United States was the "nature of our society" and that he was not going to "pass judgment on that".[127] However, on the revelation that the NSA has been secretly spying on Google's data centers worldwide, he called the practice "outrageous" and criticized the NSA's collection of Americans phone records.[128]
In 2025, Schmidt was accused of having "built an insider “backdoor” to Google servers with a team of Google engineers in order to spy on Google employees. Accordingly, the backdoor enabled him to access anyone’s Google Account[vague] and private information."[129]
In August 2010, Schmidt clarified his company's views onnetwork neutrality: "I want to be clear what we mean by Net neutrality: What we mean is if you have one data type like video, you don't discriminate against one person's video in favor of another. But it's okay to discriminate across different types. So you could prioritize voice over video. And there is general agreement withVerizon and Google on that issue."[130]
In January 2013, Schmidt andJared Cohen, director ofGoogle Ideas visitedNorth Korea along with formerNew Mexico governorBill Richardson.[131] The trip was highly publicized and controversial due to the ongoing tension between North Korea and the United States.[132] On August 10, 2013, North Korea announced an indigenous smartphone, namedArirang, that may be using the Google Android operating system.[133]
In March 2013, Schmidt visitedMyanmar, which had been ruled by amilitary junta for decades and was transitioning to a democracy. During his visit, Schmidt spoke in favor of free and open Internet use in the country, and was scheduled to meet with the country's president.[134][135][136]
In January 2015, Schmidt andJared Cohen, director ofGoogle Ideas, met withPope Francis to discuss technology and society. This was the first meeting between the Pope and a technology leader, which was subsequently followed by other tech leaders visiting theVatican.[137][138][139][140][141]
In 2013, Schmidt andJared Cohen, director of theGoogle Ideas think tank, publishedThe New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, which discusses the geopolitical implications of increasingly widespread Internet use and access to information. The book was inspired by an essay inForeign Affairs magazine the two co-wrote in 2010.[142][143][144] He also wrote the preface toThe Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, byWilliam H. Draper, III.[145]
In 2014, Schmidt co-authored the New York Times best-selling bookHow Google Works[146] withJonathan Rosenberg, former Senior Vice President of Products at Google and current advisor to Google CEOLarry Page, and Alan Eagle.[147] The book is a collection of the business management lessons learned over the course of Schmidt and Rosenberg's time leading Google.[148] In his book, Eric Schmidt argues that successful companies in the technology-driven internet age should attract smart and creative employees and create an environment where they can thrive. He argues that the traditional business rules that make a company successful have changed; companies should maximize freedom and speed, and decision-making should not lie in the hands of the few. Schmidt also emphasizes that individuals and small teams can have a massive impact on innovation.[149]
Dating back to early 1990s and dubbed "Schmidt's Law" byGeorge Gilder when Schmidt predicted that the network will become the computer.[152][153][154] Schmidt's Law states: "When the network becomes as fast as thebackplane of your computer, the computer hollows out, its components dispersing across the Web, its value migrating to search and sort functions."[155]
During a 2024 interview withStanford University students, Schmidt commented on Silicon Valley's probable use of AI in the future, commenting that a hypotheticalstartup company could release a product that infringes onintellectual property, and simply hire lawyers to solve any legal problems if it became successful.[158][159] This concept was compared to theSilicon Valley mentality of "move fast and break things", which had recently led to lawsuits againstOpenAI.[160]
Schmidt was on the list ofARTnews's 200 top art collectors in 2008.[161] Schmidt denied that he was an art collector, despite his involvement in art, in 2019.[162]
Schmidt has been active at theWorld Economic Forum inDavos, serving as a Co-Chair of the 2015 Annual Meeting held under the theme “The New Global Context.”[171][172]
In June 1980, Schmidt marriedWendy Susan Boyle (born 1955 inShort Hills, New Jersey). They lived inAtherton, California, in the 1990s.[174] They have a daughter,Sophie,[22][175] and had another, Alison, who died in 2017 from an illness.[176] A number of Schmidt's extramarital relationships have attracted publicity, but he and his wife continue joint philanthropic efforts.[177][178][179]
In 2015, Schmidt acquired a 20% stake inD. E. Shaw & Co..[183] Schmidt is also an investor in CargoMetrics, another quant hedge fund.[184]
In April 2015, Schmidt delivered the commencement address atVirginia Tech, located in Schmidt's childhood home ofBlacksburg, Virginia.[185] This came on the heels of Schmidt making a $2 million donation to Virginia Tech's College of Engineering. Schmidt's philanthropy is the result of his longstanding friendship with Virginia Tech's former presidentPaul Torgersen. His donation funded the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean's Chair in Engineering.[186]
In September 2020, Schmidt purchased Montecito Mansion, a 22,000-square-foot estate overlookingSanta Barbara, for $30.8 million.[187]
In November 2020,Recode reported that Schmidt was finalizing his plan to become a citizen ofCyprus. He is one of the highest-profile people to take advantage of theimmigrant investor programs that offers a "passport-for-sale". This passport can be used to enter and live in any country of theEuropean Union.[188]
In 2023 and 2024, CO2 emissions from flights taken by Schmidt'sGulfstream 650 jet placed him at the top of lists of private jet owners who generated the most carbon emissions.[190][191][192]
^Eric Schmidt (1979)."The Berkeley Network – A Retrospective"(PDF). Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on May 28, 2008. RetrievedJune 14, 2011.
^"CEO Eric Eric Schmidt stood out because he 'was the only candidate who had been toBurning Man.'" From"Markoff and Zachary on Google"Archived July 5, 2004, at theWayback Machine; quoted areJohn Markoff and Gregg Zachary. See alsoBusiness Week's"Eric Eric Schmidt, Google".Archived December 7, 2006, at theWayback Machine from September 29, 2003: "One of the first orders of business was joining his new 20-something colleagues atBurning Man, a free-form festival of artistic self-expression held in a Nevada desert lake bed. Sitting in his office shortly after his return, tanned and slightly weary, Eric Schmidt couldn't have been happier. "They're keeping me young," he declared."
^abWesthoven, Jennifer. "CNET: We've been blackballed by Google." (Archive)CNNMoney. August 5, 2005. Retrieved September 16, 2013. "Schmidt is officially Google's chief champion and defender, and has publicly said that there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality. He has brought up Google's corporate motto, "Don't Be Evil" in those defenses. "
^"Google Execs Say 'The Power of Information Is Underrated'".All Tech Considered. NPR. April 23, 2013. RetrievedAugust 19, 2013.Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen recently returned from a highly publicized trip to North Korea. They discuss the role of the Internet in more repressive countries.
^Youkyung Lee (August 16, 2013)."Skepticism as NKorea shows home-grown smartphone".AP Newswire. Stars & Stripes. Archived fromthe original on August 19, 2013. RetrievedAugust 19, 2013.The Korean Central News Agency's Aug. 10 report said the factory began manufacturing smartphones 'a few days ago' ... Kim Mun-gu, a manager at a South Korean mobile phone company, said the Arirang smartphone appears to be using the Android operating system. He said the photos aren't convincing as proof the North is manufacturing the phones
^Blankfqld, Keren,"A Man For All Reasons",Forbes, December 12, 2010. "Berggruen plucked from his diverse connections, including such boldface names as former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, philanthropist Eli Broad and Google Chief Eric Schmidt."
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