Anthony Levandowski is a French-American engineer and entrepreneur who has been a major player in the development of self-driving car technology. He first gained prominence for his work at Google’s self-driving car project Waymo, which he helped co-found in 2009. Later on, Levandowski left Google and started his own autonomous trucking companies Otto and Pronto. At his peak, his net worth was estimated to be between $50-$100 million. However, due to some high-profile legal troubles related to allegations of stealing trade secrets from Google, Anthony Levandowski Net Worth has dropped significantly in recent years. It is now estimated to be around $20 million as of 2023.
Early Life and Education
Anthony Levandowski was born on March 15, 1980 in Brussels, Belgium. His mother was French and his father was American. During his teenage years, Levandowski moved with his family to California. He later attended the University of California Berkeley, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering and operations research. Even as a young college student, Levandowski displayed a strong entrepreneurial spirit and interest in technology and robotics.
Early Career
While still an undergraduate student at Berkeley, Levandowski founded his own IT services company called La Raison in 1997. The business earned $50,000 in revenue in its very first year. In 1999, Levandowski built a Lego robot called the BillSortBot which won first place in the Sun Microsystems robotics competition. The robot could sort Monopoly money.
In 2004, Levandowski co-founded 510 Systems, a startup focused on developing mobile mapping and sensor technology for autonomous vehicles. The company went on to develop some early prototypes and work on self-driving motorcycles. Just a few years later in 2007, 510 Systems was acquired by Google for around $20 million. The acquisition brought Levandowski on board just as Google was ramping up its self-driving car project.
Google Self-Driving Car Project
Levandowski was hired by Google in 2007 to help develop its Street View mapping project. As part of this, he created mapping vehicles outfitted with early lidar sensors. He also constructed one of the first self-driving car prototypes nicknamed the PriBot.
In 2009, Levandowski co-founded Google’s self-driving car project, which was first called Chauffeur. This later evolved into Waymo, which became its own Alphabet company. Levandowski worked as one of the key technical leads on creating Google’s self-driving cars. During his time at Google before leaving in 2016, he earned over $120 million in total compensation.
Otto and Uber
In early 2016, Levandowski left Google and co-founded a new self-driving truck company called Otto with three other partners. Within just 6 months, Otto was acquired by ride-sharing firm Uber Technologies for a reported $680 million. As part of the deal, Levandowski was installed as the head of Uber’s self-driving vehicle division.
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However, Levandowski’s time at Uber was short-lived. In 2017, Uber fired him after Waymo filed a lawsuit alleging that Levandowski had stolen trade secrets from Google to benefit Uber. The lawsuit claimed that Otto was simply a shell company Levandowski used to transfer Google’s intellectual property. Though Uber initially defended Levandowski, they eventually made the decision to remove him from the company. Uber ended up settling the high-profile case with Waymo for $245 million in 2018.
Legal Troubles
In 2017, Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber alleging that Levandowski had stolen over 14,000 files containing trade secrets about their self-driving car technology. This alleged theft took place while Levandowski was still working at Google before leaving to start Otto.
The Department of Justice later filed formal criminal charges against Levandowski in 2019 related to the theft. In total, he was indicted on 33 counts of stealing autonomous vehicle trade secrets. Ultimately, Levandowski pled guilty to one count of stealing trade secrets as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $750,000 in restitution to Waymo.
Levandowski served around 6 months in prison before being pardoned by President Trump in January 2021. However, his legal troubles continued. In 2022, Uber reached a settlement agreement with Waymo that required Levandowski to pay between $25-$30 million for his role in the scandal.
Bankruptcy and Settlements
The legal costs and civil judgements against Levandowski took a major toll on his finances. In 2020, he was ordered to pay Google over $179 million for breaching his employment contract. Unable to pay such an exorbitant amount, Levandowski was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
As part of his bankruptcy filing, Levandowski reported between $50-$100 million in assets but an estimated $100-$500 million in liabilities. This essentially wiped out his once sizeable net worth. Additionally, as part of Uber’s 2022 settlement with Waymo, Levandowski is still on the hook for paying $25-30 million in damages.
While the legal saga bankrupted Levandowski, it also cost Google and Uber hundreds of millions in lawyers fees, settlements, and missed opportunities. The high-stakes corporate battle underscored the intense race to dominate the self-driving car space.
Recent Projects
Despite his legal and financial troubles, Levandowski continues to work on innovative transportation projects. In 2018, he founded a new self-driving truck startup called Pronto focused on autonomous safety systems. He invested over $8.5 million of his own funds into the company.
More recently in 2022, Levandowski launched a peer-to-peer crypto wireless network called Pollen Mobile. The network uses blockchain and crypto tokens to incentivize a decentralized mesh network model. Levandowski sees it as key infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles.
Though his net worth has decreased significantly, Levandowki’s persistence in pursuing his vision for the future of transportation remains unchanged. He is currently CEO of both Pronto and Pollen Mobile.
Anthony Levandowski net worth
At his peak, Anthony Levandowski net worth was estimated to be somewhere between $50-$100 million. This wealth came from his early work at Google’s self-driving car project as well as the acquisition of his startups by major tech firms.
However, Levandowski’s net worth has dropped precipitously over the last few years due to legal costs. The judgements and settlements in the Waymo/Uber lawsuit bankrupted Levandowski, essentially reducing his net worth to zero as of 2020.
Levandowski still owes Google $25-30 million as part of the final 2022 settlement of the trade secret theft case. Factoring in this remaining liability, current estimates put Anthony Levandowski’s net worth somewhere around -$20 to -$30 million. His legal woes have clearly taken a huge financial toll and lead to significant debt obligations.
Anthony Levandowski net worth
At his peak, Anthony Levandowski net worth was estimated to be somewhere between $50-$100 million. This wealth came from his early work at Google’s self-driving car project as well as the acquisition of his startups by major tech firms.
However, Levandowski’s net worth has dropped precipitously over the last few years due to legal costs. The judgements and settlements in the Waymo/Uber lawsuit bankrupted Levandowski, essentially reducing his net worth to zero as of 2020.
Levandowski still owes Google $25-30 million as part of the final 2022 settlement of the trade secret theft case. Factoring in this remaining liability, current estimates put Anthony Levandowski’s net worth somewhere around -$20 to -$30 million. His legal woes have clearly taken a huge financial toll and lead to significant debt obligations.
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