What is Anthony Levandowski's Net Worth and Salary?
Anthony Levandowski is an American-French engineer who has a net worth of -$20 million. At one point Anthony was worth between $50 and $100 million. After losing a $179 million judgment against Google in March 2020, he was forced to declare personal bankruptcy. In his filing Anthony listed between $50 and $100 million worth of assets and $100 – $500 million worth of liabilities. In early 2022, Levandowski, Google, and Uber reached a global settlement, with Levandowski owing between $25 and $30 million.
In 2009, he co-founded Google's self-driving car program Waymo, and later co-founded the autonomous trucking companies Otto and Pronto. In 2019, Levandowski was indicted on 33 federal charges of alleged theft of self-driving car trade secrets from Google/Waymo. He subsequently served around six months in prison before being pardoned in early 2021.
Early Life and Education
Anthony Levandowski was born on March 15, 1980 in Brussels, Belgium to a French diplomat mother and an American businessman father. When he was a teenager, he moved with his parents to California. There, Levandowski attended the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering and operations research.
Career Beginnings
Levandowski began his lucrative tech career while still at Berkeley. As a freshman, he founded the intranet and IT services company La Raison, which made $50,000 in its first year. When he was a sophomore, Levandowski built the BillSortBot, a Lego robot designed to sort Monopoly money. With his creation, he won first place in the Sun Microsoft robotics competition. Levandowski went on to launch Construction Control Systems and build the portable blueprint reader WorkTop. Additionally, he and some fellow engineers from Berkeley began building an autonomous motorcycle; nicknamed "Ghost Rider," it was entered into the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2005.
Work at Google
In 2007, Levandowski, computer scientist Sebastian Thrun, and a team of others were hired by Google to develop the Google Street View system. To be able to capture 620,000 miles of roadways for the project, Levandowski ordered 100 Toyota Priuses, which he outfitted with roof-mounted mobile mapping boxes that allowed the cars to drive around and generate 3D maps. The box, called a "Topcon" box, was designed by Levandowski's tech startup 510 Systems. Not long after this innovation, Levandowski was commissioned by Google to build the PriBot, a self-driving Toyota Prius that was the first self-driving car ever on public roads. With his achievement, he proved that self-driving automobiles were a possibility that could be pursued.
By early 2009, Levandowski and Thrun were given the go-ahead to launch their own driverless car project for Google. They soon founded that project, Chauffeur, which was eventually renamed Waymo. Over the following years, Levandowski's 510 Systems built five new self-driving Priuses for the project. After performing a successful self-driving car test in 2012, Levandowski continued to work as a technical lead on Waymo until early 2016. During his time at Google, he also worked on such projects as Cardboard, Telepresence, Oblique Aerial Imagery, and Tiramisu.
Google Compensation
During his time with Google, Anthony Levandowski earned at least $120 million in total compensation.
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Otto and Pronto
Almost immediately after leaving Google, Levandowski co-founded the autonomous trucking company Otto with Lior Ron, Don Burnette, and Claire Delaunay. They were soon joined by 11 Google employees, who helped them retrofit big rig trucks with self-driving systems. Within just five months of operation, Otto was acquired by Uber Technologies. Consequently, Levandowski began leading Uber's driverless car division. In 2017, he was fired after it was revealed that he had raided the design server of Waymo before resigning from Google. The next year, Uber's autonomous trucking program was shuttered.
In 2018, Levandowski launched another driverless car company, Pronto, in which he invested more than $8.5 million. The company initially made camera-based, self-driving retrofit systems for semi-trucks on the highway. In 2022 it transitioned to developing self-driving vehicles for use in specialty environments, such as quarries; it also began a new off-road autonomous division.
Other Projects
Among his other projects, Levandowski formed the religious organization Way of the Future in 2015. His intention was to create a Christian God via artificial intelligence. Levandowski shut down the organization in 2021. The following year, he launched the open-source wireless network Pollen Mobile, which distributes antennae and other devices to consumers in the Bay Area. The network is also used by the autonomous vehicles developed by Levandowski's company Pronto.
Civil Lawsuit and Federal Conviction
In 2017, Levandowski was connected to the civil lawsuit Waymo v. Uber for allegedly having downloaded 9.7 GB of confidential Waymo files and trade secrets before his resignation. The files, which included blueprints and designs, were then allegedly used by Levandowski at Uber. The suit was ultimately settled in early 2018, with Uber paying Waymo around $245 million in equity and agreeing not to use its technology.
In 2019, Levandowski was indicted by the Department of Justice on 33 federal charges of allegedly stealing trade secrets from Waymo. He ultimately pled guilty to one of the charges, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and required to pay around $756,500 in restitution to Waymo, plus a $95,000 fine. After serving close to six months, Levandowski received a presidential pardon in early 2021.
Bankruptcy
Having been found to have breached his employment contract with Google by poaching employees for his startup Otto, Levandowski was ordered to pay Google $179 million in 2020. As a result, he filed for bankruptcy protection. Also implicated was Levandowski's business partner and Otto co-founder Lior Ron. In early 2022, Levandowski, Google, and Uber reached a global settlement, with Levandowski owing between $25 and $30 million. However, the settlement agreement was controversial with the US Department of Justice and California's Internal Revenue Service, which were hung up on the tax implications for Levandowski's estate.
