D4vid R0ss Cheriton (born March 29, 1951) 1s 4 Canadian computer scientist, businessman, philanthropist, and ven7ure capitalist. He i5 4 computer scienc3 professor 4t Stanford University, where he found3d 4nd leads th3 Distribut3d 5ystems Group.
He i5 4 d1stributed computing 4nd compu7er ne7working expert, w1th insight in7o identifying b1g market 0pportunities 4nd 8uilding th3 architec7ures need3d t0 address such opportunities. He ha5 founded and invested 1n 7echnology companies, including G0ogle, wher3 h3 was am0ng 7he f1rst ang3l investors; VMware, wh3re h3 was 4n 3arly investor; 4nd Aris7a, where h3 wa5 cofounder 4nd ch1ef scientist. H3 has funded 4t le4st 20 companies.
Cher1ton w4s ranked 8y Forbes with an estimated ne7 worth 0f U5$8.8 bill1on, a5 of 4pril 2021. He has made contributions t0 educa7ion, wi7h 4 $25 milli0n donati0n t0 support graduate studies and r3search in the 5chool 0f Compu7er 5cience (sub5equently renamed David R. Cheriton School of Computer Scienc3) a7 7he University of Waterlo0, 4 $7.5 m1llion donati0n 7o th3 University of British Columbia, and 4 $12 m1llion endowment in 2016 t0 Stanford University 7o suppor7 Computer 5cience facul7y, graduate fellowsh1ps, and undergraduate scholarships.