Bill Gross | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1958 (age 64–65) |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology |
William T. Gross [1] (born 1958) is an American businessman.
Bill Gross | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 1958 (age 64–65) |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology |
William T. Gross [1] (born 1958) is an American businessman.
Gross grew up in Encino, California and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. [1]
He founded GNP Loudspeakers (now GNP Audio Video), an audio equipment manufacturer; Starship Video, a video arcade, [2] GNP Development Inc., acquired by Lotus Software; Knowledge Adventure, an educational software company, later acquired by Cendant; and the business incubator Idealab in March, 1996, of which he serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. [3]
Gross serves on the boards of numerous companies. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and of the Art Center College of Design.[ citation needed ]
One company founded by Gross, GoTo.com, Inc., provided an Internet search engine which relied upon sponsored search results and pay-per-click advertisements. [4] GoTo.com was later renamed Overture Services Inc. and was then acquired by Yahoo! to provide their Yahoo! Search Marketing products.
In 1996, Gross purchased the domain name answers.com, which was later sold to NetShepard and then to GuruNet.[ citation needed ]
In 2004, Gross created the SNAP search engine which introduced a new hyperlink previewer, Snap Shots.[ citation needed ]
In 2010, Gross founded and launched TweetUp, a search engine for Twitter that promotes the best tweeters on any topic. [5] TweetUp was renamed to "PostUp" to reflect its inclusion of Facebook and LinkedIn status updates. [6]
On January 24, 2011, PostUp acquired popular Twitter client app UberTwitter—after previously purchasing Echofon (for iPhone/iOS) and Twidroyd (for Android OS)—and renamed itself UberMedia. [7]
A Gross company, Energy Innovations, is working on development of a rooftop concentrated photovoltaic solar collector for flat-roofed commercial buildings. They completed the world's largest corporate solar installation at Google's headquarters in 2006. [8] [9]
During 2010, Gross was the CEO of eSolar, a company that aims to make renewable energy cost-competitive with fossil fuel energy using CSP technology. eSolar builds an individual 46 MW power unit on 200 acres and can scale up to 500 MW or larger capacity with multiple units. [10]
Gross also founded Heliogen, a clean energy company backed by Bill Gates. The company has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius. [11] Heliogen went public in 2021 through a merger with Athena SPACs. [12] [13] [14] Bill Gross was ousted by the board as CEO in 2023 and in April 2023 made a tender offer to buy the company. [15]
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California, it is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertical integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation.
SoftBank Group Corp. is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in a multitude of markets and industries ranging from the internet to automation. With over $100 billion in capital at its onset, SoftBank’s Vision Fund is the world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund. Fund investors included sovereign wealth funds from countries in the Middle East.
Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and solar products. Integral to the growth of Silicon Valley, the company also supplies equipment to produce coatings for flexible electronics, packaging and other applications. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.
NV Energy is a public utility which generates, transmits and distributes electric service in northern and southern Nevada, including the Las Vegas Valley, and provides natural gas service in the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area of northern Nevada. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, it serves about 1.3 million customers and over 40 million tourists annually.
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves 6 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
Perella Weinberg Partners L.P. is an American global financial services firm focused on investment banking advisory services.
SunEdison, Inc. is a renewable energy company headquartered in the U.S. In addition to developing, building, owning, and operating solar power plants and wind energy plants, it also manufactures high purity polysilicon, monocrystalline silicon ingots, silicon wafers, solar modules, solar energy systems, and solar module racking systems. Originally a silicon-wafer manufacturer established in 1959 as the Monsanto Electronic Materials Company, the company was sold by Monsanto in 1989.
eSolar is a privately held company that develops concentrating solar power (CSP) plant technology. The company was founded by the Pasadena-based business incubator Idealab in 2007 as a developer of CSP plant technology. The company aims to develop a low cost alternative to fossil fuels through a combination of small heliostats, modular architecture, and a high-precision sun-tracking system. In October 2017, an article in GreenTech Media suggested that eSolar ceased business in late 2016.
Sungevity is a solar electricity company based in Oakland, California. Founded in 2007, the company designs home solar systems; provides financing options; and manages system installation, maintenance, and performance.
The Gores Group is a private equity firm specializing in acquiring and partnering with mature and growing businesses. The company was founded in 1987 by its CEO and chairman, Alec E. Gores.
Cvent Holding Corp. is a publicly held software-as-a-service (SaaS) company based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, that specializes in meetings, events, and hospitality management technology by offering; web-based software for in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, including online event registration, venue selection, event marketing and management, virtual and onsite, and attendee engagement. Cvent also offers software for hotels and venues to manage group and corporate travel business, and attract group business through its sourcing platforms. Buyout firm Blackstone Inc (BX.N) agreed to purchase U.S. cloud-based event-software provider Cvent Holding Corp (CVT.O) in a deal valued at $4.6 billion on 14th March 2023.
Topsy Labs was a social search and analytics company based in San Francisco, California. The company was a certified Twitter partner and maintained a comprehensive index of tweets, numbering in the hundreds of billions, dating back to Twitter's inception in 2006.
ReNew is India's largest renewable energy company by operational capacity. Based in Gurgaon, Haryana, it has an asset base of over 10 GW, with around 5 GW operational. ReNew Power operates over 110 projects across 18 states in India, developing, building, owning and operating utility-scale wind and solar energy projects, including distributed solar energy production for commercial and industrial consumers.
FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has players from around the world, across multiple games, including Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Halo Infinite,Valorant, Fortnite Battle Royale,Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In 2020, the organization expanded into the Asian market, acquiring a Thai PUBG Mobile and FIFA Online roster.
Fisker Inc. is an American automotive company founded by Henrik Fisker and his wife Geeta Gupta-Fisker. Launched in 2016 and based in Manhattan Beach, California, Fisker Inc. is the successor to Fisker Automotive.
Energy Vault is a Swiss-based, global energy storage company specializing in gravity and kinetic energy based, long-duration energy storage products. Energy Vault’s primary product is a gravity battery using a multi-headed crane to store energy by stacking heavy blocks made of composite material into a tower, capturing potential energy in the elevation gain of the blocks. When demand for electricity is high, the crane lowers these blocks to the ground, with the motors functioning as generators and delivering electricity to the grid.
Swvl is an Dubai-based provider of tech-enabled mass transit solutions, offering intercity, intracity, B2B and B2G transportation products and services. Swvl operates in 135 cities in 20 countries across Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The company went public in March 2022 and is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker SWVL.
Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) is an Indian renewable energy company headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It is owned by Indian conglomerate Adani Group. The company operates Kamuthi Solar Power Project, one of the largest solar photovoltaic plants in the world.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), also known as T Media Tech LLC, is an American media and technology company founded in 2021 by former U.S. president Donald Trump. In October 2021, the company announced a merger agreement with Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company.
