Charles Simonyi net worth is estimated to be around $6 billion as of 2024. Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American software architect born on 10 September 1948. He played a big role in bringing the graphical user interface (GUI) to Bill Gates for the first time. Gates was impressed by this and called it one of the two most groundbreaking things he ever experienced.
Simonyi also led the team at Microsoft that created the early versions of Microsoft Office. Later on, he started a company called Intentional Software which Microsoft eventually bought in 2017. The focus of this company was on intentional programming a concept Simonyi had developed.
Beyond his work in technology, Simonyi is known for being the fifth space tourist. He went to space for the first time in 2007 on Soyuz TMA-10 and then again in 2009 on Soyuz TMA-14 becoming the second Hungarian to visit the International Space Station.
Charles Simonyi in Brief
| Full Name | Charles Simonyi |
| Date of Birth | September 10, 1948 |
| Place of Birth | Budapest, Hungary |
| Occupation | Computer Scientist |
| Height | 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) |
| Spouse | Lisa Persdotter Simonyi |
| Net Worth | $6 billion |
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What is Charles Simonyi Net Worth in 2024?
Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American software architect with a net worth of $6 billion as of 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Charles Simonyi worked at Microsoft from 1981 to 2002, where he played a key role in creating Microsoft Office. After Microsoft, he started Intentional Software, which Microsoft later acquired.
In 2007, Simonyi went to space as a tourist on the Soyuz TMA-10 and returned to the International Space Station in March 2009.
His net worth largely comes from his tech industry work and smart investments in technology and space travel. He also bought and sold shares in various companies, boosting his wealth and contributing to his high net worth.
Charles Simonyi’s Early Life and Education
Charles Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary. His dad Károly Simonyi was a professor of electrical engineering at the Technical University of Budapest. He made the first nuclear particle accelerator in Hungary. When Simonyi was in high school he worked part-time as a night guard at a computer lab in the early 1960s. He looked after a big Soviet Ural II computer. He got interested in computers and learned to write programs from one of the lab’s engineers.
When he finished school he knew how to make compilers and sold one to a government department. He showed his compiler to a group of Danish computer experts. In 2006, he said that when he was young his dream was to leave Hungary go to the West and be free.
Charles Simonyi’s Career
At 17, Simonyi left Hungary with a short-term visa and didn’t go back. He worked in Denmark for a company called A/S Regnecentralen starting in 1966. There, he helped with the RC 4000 minicomputer and the GIER ALGOL compiler.
In 1968, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got his BS in Engineering Mathematics & Statistics in 1972. He also has honorary doctorates from the Juilliard School in New York and the University of Pecs in Hungary.
Simonyi joined Xerox PARC in 1974, where he worked on the Xerox Alto, an early personal computer. He and Butler Lampson created “Bravo,” the first WYSIWYG document program. He got his PhD from Stanford University in 1977, where he worked on a new way to manage software projects called meta-programming.
In 1997, Simonyi was honored with a membership in the National Academy of Engineering for his work on desktop software. He also joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. Since 1998, he’s been on the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was its Chairman in 2008. In 2000, he received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement.
Microsoft
In 1981, Charles Simonyi met with Bill Gates at Microsoft. Gates suggested Simonyi start a new apps team, creating the first app as a WYSIWYG word processor. At Microsoft, Simonyi helped develop big products like “Word” and “Excel,” and its earlier version, “Multiplan.” He used a method called the “revenue bomb,” making the apps work on many platforms. However, over time, this became less important because Microsoft and IBM focused on MS-DOS.
In 2002, a news article said Simonyi introduced metaprogramming at Microsoft, which was like making a software factory. However, this idea didn’t work out well in practice.
Simonyi also brought object-oriented programming techniques from Xerox to Microsoft. He created the Hungarian notation for naming variables, which came from his doctoral thesis. This naming system became widely used at Microsoft.
Intentional Software
Charles Simonyi was a top developer at Microsoft during its big growth. In 2002, he left to start a new company, Intentional Software, with Gregor Kiczales. This company focuses on a special way of programming where a programmer helps experts describe what a program should do. The computer then creates the program based on this description, and any changes are made easily in a simple view.
In 2004, Simonyi won the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his big impact on technology. On April 18, 2017, Microsoft bought Intentional Software.
Charles Simonyi’s Personal Life
Charles Simonyi was in a long relationship with Martha Stewart until 2008. He then married Lisa Persdotter a woman much younger than him and the daughter of a wealthy Swedish person in a private ceremony attended by friends like Bill Gates. They have two daughters together.
Simonyi became a citizen of the United States in 1982.
He used to spend half of the year on a huge yacht named Skat but sold it in 2021. Now he owns another yacht called NORN which is even bigger.
Charles Simonyi lives in a cool house called “Villa Simonyi” in Medina Washington. It’s designed by an architect named Wendell Lovett and has some cool paintings by artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Victor Vasarely.
Simonyi was interested in space and went on two trips to the International Space Station (ISS). He was the fifth person to travel as a space tourist and the only one who went twice by paying his way. He’s also into amateur radio and talked to schools while in space. He supports a museum in Seattle that has cool space stuff.
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Charles Simonyi’s Philanthropy
Charles Simonyi is someone who gives a lot of money to help others. In 1995, he set up a special position at Oxford University to help people understand science better. Richard Dawkins was the first person in this position and now Marcus du Sautoy is doing it. Simonyi also created a special teaching position at Stanford University which Eric S. Roberts held for a while. In 2005 he gave $25 million to create a job for someone who studies math and physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey. Edward Witten has been doing that job since then.
In 2003, Charles Simonyi started a fund to support art science, and education projects in Seattle. This fund gave money to places like the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Public Library. It also helped places like the Metropolitan Opera and the Juilliard School. The fund also supported the building of the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The fund closed in 2013 after giving away $100 million.
In 2017, Simonyi and his wife Lisa donated $5 million to help finish a new building for the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of Washington.
