Larry Page
Born 1973 · Age 52
Co-founder of Google and Alphabet Inc.; computer scientist and entrepreneur; co-creator of PageRank.
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Life & Career Timeline
Born in Lansing, Michigan
Lawrence Edward Page born to Carl Victor Page Sr. and Gloria Page in Lansing/East Lansing area.
Family brought home an Exidy Sorcerer computer
At age six Page was first attracted to computers after his father brought home an Exidy Sorcerer; began using it for schoolwork.
Graduated East Lansing High School
Completed secondary education (East Lansing HS).
Joined University of Michigan Solar Car Team
Member of the 'Maize & Blue' University of Michigan solar car team.
Built an inkjet plotter from Lego
As an undergraduate, reverse-engineered an ink cartridge and built a Lego-based inkjet plotter/printer.
Graduated University of Michigan (BSE)
Received B.S.E. in Computer Engineering with honors from the University of Michigan.
Entered Stanford Computer Science graduate program
Enrolled in Stanford's MS/PhD program in computer science; met Sergey Brin (orientation tour) and began graduate research.
Started BackRub web-crawler research
Launched project 'BackRub' to analyze backlinks on the Web; early crawler and backlink analysis work that became Google.
Initial version of search engine made available from Stanford
Early search prototype (BackRub) made available to Internet users while hosted on Stanford University servers.
Published BackRub rough statistics (Stanford site)
BackRub page listed stats (e.g., ~75M indexable HTML URLs and 207 GB content downloaded) — early evidence of scale.
Registered domain google.com
Page and Brin registered the domain google.com (derived from 'googol').
Received $100,000 cheque from Andy Bechtolsheim
Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems co-founder) wrote a $100,000 check to 'Google, Inc.' before incorporation; crucial seed capital.
Incorporated Google, Inc.
Brin and Page incorporated Google (often dated 1998) and began operating out of a rented garage in Menlo Park.
Rented Menlo Park garage (Susan Wojcicki)
Google team used friend Susan Wojcicki's garage for office space; rent reported at $1,700/month.
Page named CEO of Google
Upon incorporation Page took the CEO role while Brin served as president.
Published 'The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine' (research)
Page and Brin authored the influential paper (BackRub/Google research) describing their search engine architecture and PageRank ideas.
Raised $25 million VC funding
Google secured $25M from venture capitalists including Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins (significant early VC round).
Started '20% time' culture widely associated with Google
Innovation policy encouraging employees to spend time on independent projects (policy credited with many product origins).
Moved into Mountain View offices (after $1M loan)
With about $1M from friends/family, the team moved into a Mountain View office by the start of 2000.
Started selling text-based ads (AdWords evolution)
Google introduced text-based advertising tied to search keywords, a key step toward its advertising-driven revenue model.
Reached 10,000+ searches/day (early traction)
By mid-1998 they had ~10,000 searches/day; growth continued to hundreds of millions by 2004.
Documented management tenets
Page authored and circulated management tenets emphasizing engineering-driven decisions, speed and anti-bureaucracy.
Indexed 1 billion Internet URLs
By June 2000 Google reported indexing roughly one billion URLs (560M full-text indexed pages and 500M partial URLs).
Attempted reorganization of engineering management
Page pushed for engineers reporting structure changes and sought to eliminate many project manager roles — caused internal friction.
Stepped down as Google's CEO; Eric Schmidt became CEO
Under investor pressure Page agreed to bring in an experienced CEO; Schmidt hired as chairman in March and became CEO in August 2001; Page became President, Products.
Received Marconi Prize (with Sergey Brin)
Awarded the Marconi Prize in recognition of contributions to internet search and related technology (PageRank).
Golden Plate Award (American Academy of Achievement)
Page and Brin received the Academy's Golden Plate Award in 2004.
Patent for PageRank assigned to Stanford; licensed to Google
PageRank patent was assigned to Stanford, which granted Google an exclusive license in exchange for stock (early IP licensing arrangement).
Google IPO raised $1.67B
Google's initial public offering raised approximately $1.67 billion, giving Google a market capitalization near $23B; Page became a billionaire (> $3.8B reported).
Became passionate and heavily involved with Android
After Android acquisition Page invested time with Andy Rubin and pushed for mobile strategy; Android later became world's most popular mobile OS.
Led acquisition of Android for $50M
Google acquired Android in 2005 for approximately $50 million — a strategic move to bring mobile OS into Google's ecosystem.
Acquired YouTube for $1.65B in stock
Google purchased YouTube for about $1.65 billion in stock, expanding into online video.
Google recognized as top employer (Fortune)
Fortune ranked Google among the best companies to work for (2007–2008) — part of Page's culture legacy.
Acquired DoubleClick (~$3.1B)
Google acquired DoubleClick to strengthen display ad technology (reported ~$3.1B).
Google hits >10,000 employees and >$10B revenue by year-end 2006 (context)
By end of 2006 Google had over 10,000 employees and annual revenues well over $10 billion — context for Page's influence.
Personal life: married Lucinda Southworth (2007)
Page married Lucinda Southworth in 2007; the couple later had two children (one child reported born in 2009).
T-Mobile G1 launched (first Android phone)
G1 (HTC Dream) launched Sept 2008 — first phone using Android; early signs of Android's growth.
Awarded honorary doctorate from University of Michigan
University of Michigan granted Page an honorary doctorate.
Birth of child (reported ~2009)
Page and Lucinda had a child reported in 2009 (first child).
Named Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (approx.)
Recognized by the AAAS (listed as Fellow in mid-2000s reports, often cited as 2005/2009 timeframe in biographies).
Google reaches massive scale (context)
By 2010/2011 Google had ~24,000 employees and market capitalization ~> $180B (context ahead of Page's CEO return).
Adopted 'toothbrush test' approach to acquisitions
Page articulated acquisition criteria — 'toothbrush test' — evaluating usefulness and daily usage as acquisition qualifiers.
Launched Google+ (response to social competition)
Google introduced the Google+ social network (initial limited field tests in mid-2011) led by Vic Gundotra.
Announced plan to resume CEO role
Announcement in January 2011 that Page would resume day-to-day CEO duties at Google.
Formed 'L-Team' and reorganized senior management
Created a senior vice-presidents group that reported directly to him to improve product autonomy and collaboration.
Became CEO of Google (second tenure)
Larry Page officially became Google's CEO again on April 4, 2011; Eric Schmidt became executive chairman.
Google began Project 'Kennedy' (design consolidation)
Design/UX consolidation initiated under Page (codenamed 'Project Kennedy') to unify Google product look & feel (rolled out 2011–2013).
Announced acquisition of Motorola Mobility ($12.5B)
Google announced it would acquire Motorola Mobility for about $12.5 billion (primarily to strengthen patents around Android).
Unveiled Chromebook hardware
Google launched Chromebook laptops running ChromeOS — a move into consumer hardware.
Project 'Kennedy' rollout completed (2011–2013)
Design overhaul and consolidation across Google products (UXA team emergence, rollouts June 2011–Jan 2013).
Google Glass public prototypes and wider publicity
Google Glass prototypes were publicly available in a limited program (2013); later pulled back for further development by 2015.
Vocal-cord paralysis noted; donated $20M to research
Page had vocal-cord paralysis; donated ~$20M to a vocal-cord nerve-function research program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo (~$2.9B)
Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo in 2014 for approximately $2.9 billion — representing a significant loss vs acquisition price.
Donated $15M to Ebola relief (family foundation)
Page's family foundation donated ~$15 million to fight the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic.
Created Alphabet Inc.; Page became CEO of Alphabet
Google restructured as a subsidiary of newly created parent company Alphabet; Page became CEO of Alphabet and Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google.
Waymo spun out as standalone company
Alphabet spun the self-driving car project into Waymo (2016) — a maturation of a long-running 'moonshot' project that Page championed.
Reported as low public profile; did not appear before Senate (2018)
Page notably stayed out of public hearings (e.g., did not appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Sept 2018) while Alphabet faced scrutiny.
John L. Hennessy became Alphabet executive chairman (context)
In 2018 John L. Hennessy succeeded Eric Schmidt as Alphabet executive chairman — context in leadership at Alphabet during Page's low public profile.
Purchased a 300-acre island in Puerto Rico (~$32M)
Reported purchase of a 300-acre island in Puerto Rico for about $32 million (private real estate purchase).
Formed Wisk Aero joint-venture origin (Kitty Hawk/Boeing tie-in)
Wisk Aero emerged in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk (Kitty Hawk being a flying-vehicle startup started by Page).
Stepped down as Alphabet CEO (with Sergey Brin)
Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they were stepping down from executive roles and day-to-day management; Sundar Pichai became CEO of Alphabet and Google.
Boeing invested $450M in Wisk (funding boost)
Wisk Aero announced a $450 million funding commitment from The Boeing Company to develop its autonomous eVTOL aircraft (Cora). Page was a founder/investor in Kitty Hawk/Wisk lineage.
Reported involvement in flying-car startups Kitty Hawk and Opener
Page invested in or funded flying-vehicle startups Kitty Hawk (founded by Page) and Opener (Page investor).
EBSCO/Forbes reported Page among the world's wealthiest (~$136.7B late 2024)
Other publications reported rich-list estimates (EBSCO cited ~$136.7B late 2024). Multiple competing estimates exist.
Bloomberg reported Page net worth at $158.1B
Bloomberg's billionaire index reported Page's net worth at approximately $158.1 billion (2024 figure reported).
Forbes estimated net worth ~$148B (June 2025)
Forbes reported an alternate estimate of Page's net worth at about $148 billion (June 2025).
Bloomberg Billionaires Index: net worth ~ $159B (June 2025)
Bloomberg reported Page's estimated net worth at approximately $159 billion (June 2025).
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