Nathan Myhrvold Net Worth

What is Nathan Myhrvold's net worth?

Nathan Myhrvold is an American Businessman who has a net worth of $900 million. Nathan Myhrvold earned his first fortune thanks to 13-year career at Microsoft, where he worked from 1986 to 1999, eventually rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer. He then earned a second fortune as the founder of a patent company called Intellectual Ventures.

In the early 1980s Nathan co-founded a company called Dynamical Systems Research Inc. which soon produced a clone of IBM's Top View multitasking environment for DOS. Dynamical Systems Research Inc. was purchased by the Microsoft in 1986.

In 2000 Myhrvold co-founded Intellectual Ventures. Intellectual Ventures is a patent portfolio developer and broker in the areas of technology and energy. Today the company has acquired over 70,000 patents and reportedly generates $3 billion per year in revenue. Intellectual Ventures has been accused of being a patent troll company.

Myhrvold currently holds 17 U.S. patents, most with co-inventors that are assigned to Microsoft. In addition Myhrvold and his co-inventors have 115 U.S. patents under the company, The Invention Science Fund I, LLC.

In the mid-199s, Nathan funded a foundation that became the most successful discoverer of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. Most of the fossils were given to museums but, as we explain later in the article (with a video), Nathan kept a full T-Rex for himself and had it assembled in the living room of his $50 million lakefront Seattle mansion.

Early Life

Nathan Myhrvold was born in Seattle, Washington on August 3, 1959. As a child, he studied at the Los Angeles-based Mirman School for the Gifted. He then went to UCLA and studied Mathematics, geophysics, and space physics, where he was awarded a Fellowship for graduate study by the Hertz Foundation and chose to attend Princeton.

He started college at the of 14. At Princeton he earned a master's degree in mathematical economics and also a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics. Myhrvold studied with Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge, where he held a postdoctoral fellowship for one year. This pair of geniuses studied cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space time and quantum theories of gravitation.

Joining Microsoft

In 1986, Myhrvold co-founded Dynamical Systems Research Inc. which aimed to produce software for the promising field of personal computing. This endeavor caught the attention of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, leading to the company's acquisition of Dynamical Systems the same year the company was founded for $1.5 million.

As a result, Myhrvold joined Microsoft and quickly ascended the ranks, eventually becoming the company's first Chief Technology Officer in 1996. His innovative approach and technological prowess significantly contributed to Microsoft's development during this period.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Intellectual Ventures

In 1999, Myhrvold took an early retirement from Microsoft to explore his myriad of interests. A significant part of this exploration led to the founding of Intellectual Ventures, a company focused on the development and licensing of intellectual properties. Intellectual Ventures has procured tens of thousands of patents, solidifying Myhrvold's status as one of the world's largest patent owners. This has garnered both admiration and controversy, with some praising his support for inventors and others critiquing the company's aggressive enforcement of its patent portfolio. Some critics have called Intellectual Ventures a patent troll. Another criticism is that Intellectual Ventures often does not actually build the ideas it conceives of, it just thinks of the ideas then applies for a patent.

Exploration of Culinary Science

Parallel to his work in technology, Myhrvold developed a passion for cooking and food science. He completed a professional culinary degree in France and combined this with his scientific background to explore innovative culinary techniques. This culminated in the publication of "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking" in 2011. The six-volume collection, which provides a scientific exploration of cooking, has been hailed as a groundbreaking work in the culinary world.

Photography and Paleontology

Apart from technology and cooking, Myhrvold is also a recognized nature and wildlife photographer. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and magazines, demonstrating his talent in this artistic field.

Additionally, he has a fascination with dinosaurs, leading to research on dinosaur growth rates and thermoregulation. He has published several papers on this topic, further exemplifying his versatile interests and capabilities. On a visit to the set of Jurassic Park in the mid-1990s, Nathan met Jack Horner, a leading paleontologist who was working as a consultant for the film. After bonding, Nathan decided to fund a dinosaur exploration foundation. That foundation would go on to uncover more tyrannosaurus rex skeletons than any other organization ever. The foundation donated all but one of the skeletons to museums around the world. He kept one for himself though. And that full T-Rex skeleton sits in the living room of his Seattle mansion.

Seattle T-Rex Mansion

In 1999 Nathan, who was 37 at the time, paid $5.7 million for two acres of shoreline property along Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. He received push-back after submitting plans to build a 13,000 square foot mansion. He actually ended up building a 19,500 square foot mansion. Today this property is worth $40 – $60 million.

You can see the previously-mentioned living room T-Rex in the photo above. It's also visible in the following YouTube video shot from a passing boat on Lake Washington: