Born Henry Thompson Nicholas III in 1959 in Cincinnati, Ohio USA, and is a businessman and philanthropist, best known to the world as the co-founder of Broadcom Corporation, one of the largest fabless semiconductor company that made products for the wireless and broadband communication industry. He served as its co-chairman until 2003, when he decided to retire.
Have you ever wondered how rich Henry Nicholas is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Nicholas’ net worth is around $1.98 billion, an amount earned through his successful career, which was active from the early ‘80s until the early 2000s.
Henry Nicholas Net Worth $1.98 Billion
Henry is the son of Henry T. Nicholas Jr., who was an attorney working for the IRS, and his wife Marcella, who was a teacher and later theater instructor at the Princeton City School District. Henry has a sister, with whom he moved to Los Angeles, California, following the divorce of his parents. He lived with his mother and sister and went to Santa Monica High School.
After matriculation, Henry enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, and acquired Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA School of Engineering. He then joined the US Air Force Academy, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and then upon return continued his education at UCLA, earning a master’s degree in 1985.
Before obtaining masters’ degree, Henry started his career by finding a job at TRW in Redondo Beach. There he met Dr. Henry Samueli, with whom he would later start Broadcom Corporation, and who would be his mentor when Henry started writing his Ph.D. later in 1998. Before collaboration with Samueli, Henry also worked for PairGain Technologies and became director of Microelectronics, but left the company in 1991.
Henry and Samueli started the Broadcom Corporation in 1991 when the two invested $5,000 each. While writing his doctoral dissertation, “Architectures, Optimization Techniques, and VLSI Implementations for Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizers”, Henry and his namesake came to a discovery, which they used as a basis for the development of the chip that became Broadcom’s product. Seven years after the two started the firm, they took the company public, and since then, have made it into a giant in semiconductor production. After gaining massive wealth, Henry decided to retire, focusing on other aspects of life, primarily his marriage, and philanthropy as well.
Also, he worked as a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine.
Regarding his personal life, Henry was married to Stacey from 1987 until the early 2000s; the couple had three children before divorce happened.
He struggled with alcoholism and in 2008 checked into an alcohol-rehabilitation program at the Betty Ford Clinic and completed treatment at Cliffside Malibu.
Henry is well-known for his philanthropic activities; stricken by his sister’s homicide in 1983 he started the Justice for Homicide Victims, Inc., which is a non-profit organization that helps families of murder victims.
He has started the Nicholas Academic Center located in downtown Santa Ana, California, which is focused on improving education for underprivileged children and has made donations to various educational institutions including St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in Orange County, Oakland Military Institute, and Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California. Henry also supports technology, arts and has supported several musical acts, including Dead By Sunrise, which was a solo act of now deceased Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.
