Why does the billionaire professor still keep teaching?

Born in Romania, Stoica is now 60 years old and has an estimated fortune of $2.5 billion.

In the late 1990s, Stoica moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). In 2000, he began teaching at Berkeley and has not left his lab or students since.

Computer science professor Ion Stoica became a billionaire by founding four startups, including unicorn companies like Databricks and Anyscale.

Despite his companies’ success, Stoica continues to teach. For him, it was never just about money — the goal was never to get rich.

"If you’re just after money, you go public. That’s the easiest way. But that’s not the point. The important thing is to build something meaningful."

Stoica describes his commitment to his students as follows:

"Young people in their developmental years sometimes don’t know what is and isn’t possible. They have that kind of belief, and that’s why you get unexpected solutions."

At Berkeley, Stoica is known not only as a great teacher but also as a fantastic advisor for business ideas — and, more importantly, as someone who helps bring these ideas to life by providing funding.

According to Stoica, the key to solving problems lies in universities.

More than 80 students whom Stoica personally mentored have benefited from his resources and connections.

The vast majority of these students work in academia or entrepreneurship, and at least seven of them are employed at Databricks.

Source: Forbes Türkiye