What is Adam D’Angelo’s Net Worth?
Adam D’Angelo is an American engineer and developer who has a net worth of $700 million. Adam earned his net worth as an early employee of Facebook and the founder of Quora. He was also an advisor and investor in Instagram before it was acquired by Facebook.
As one of Mark Zuckerberg’s oldest friends Adam was chosen to be Facebook’s first CTO in its very earliest stages. He would later serve as Vice President of Engineering. Adam played a significant role in developing the technical infrastructure of the social media platform during its critical growth period.
In 2008, D’Angelo left Facebook. The same year, he and another ex-Facebook employee, Charlie Cheever, founded Quora. Quora is a question-and-answer website that enables users to create, edit and organize its content. Quora’s users are also required to register their real names rather than a screen name, but on the other side, are allowed to link their accounts to their Twitter and Facebook. Quara has been criticized in recent years for producing massive amounts of low-quality “thin” pages that do not answer the searcher’s question, in order to rank highly in Google.
Early Life
Adam D’Angelo was born on August 14, 1984. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy for college where one of his classmates was future Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After high school he went on to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). While in college, he took part in the Association for Computing Machinery collegiate world programming contest and the international Topcoder Collegiate Challenge, in which he was one of the top 24 finalists in 2005. While still an undergrad he developed an AIM buddy list website called BuddyZoo.
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Adam D’Angelo’s journey in the tech industry began with his early involvement in Facebook, a pivotal chapter that set the foundation for his future endeavors. After attending Phillips Exeter Academy, where he developed a friendship with Mark Zuckerberg, D’Angelo joined Facebook in its nascent stages. His role at Facebook was crucial; as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO), he played a significant role in developing the technical infrastructure of the social media platform during its critical growth period.
At Facebook, D’Angelo’s contributions were manifold. He was instrumental in scaling the website’s architecture to accommodate its rapidly expanding user base. His work involved optimizing data management and enhancing the site’s overall performance, ensuring that Facebook could handle the increasing traffic and data as it evolved from a college networking site to a global social media phenomenon. His technical expertise and vision were key factors in Facebook’s transformation into one of the world’s most influential tech companies.
D’Angelo’s tenure at Facebook was marked by his deep understanding of both the technical and social aspects of the platform. He was involved in developing various features that helped shape the user experience. Despite his success at Facebook, D’Angelo’s entrepreneurial spirit and interest in other ventures led him to leave the company in 2008, setting the stage for his next major project.
Facebook IPO
When Facebook went public in 2012, Adam owned roughly 0.8% of the company’s outstanding equity. Soon after the company went public, that stake was worth around $600 million.
Quora
After departing from Facebook, Adam D’Angelo co-founded Quora in 2009, a platform that would become a significant player in the realm of knowledge sharing and social media. Quora is an online platform where users can ask questions on a variety of topics and receive answers from the community, which includes experts and enthusiasts in various fields. As CEO of Quora, D’Angelo’s vision was to create a space on the internet where knowledge could be shared, curated, and preserved in a high-quality environment. Under D’Angelo’s leadership, Quora grew rapidly, attracting millions of users and covering a vast array of subjects. Unfortunately, in recent years Quora has been roundly criticized for providing answers that are often not much more than SEO web spam.
OpenAI
Adam D’Angelo’s interest in artificial intelligence and its potential led him to become an early investor and supporter of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab. OpenAI, founded in 2015, focuses on developing and promoting friendly AI in a safe and beneficial manner. D’Angelo’s involvement with OpenAI underscores his commitment to the advancement of technology for the greater good.
While not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of OpenAI, D’Angelo’s support as an investor and advisor has been significant.
Removal of Sam Altman
In November 2023, Adam was one of the OpenAI board members who voted to fire company CEO Sam Altman. Within less than 12 hours, that decision was seen as a monumental mistake. Within 48 hours, after a failed attempt to lure Sam back to the company, Sam and several other key former OpenAI employees had moved over to Microsoft and 90% of the remaining OpenAI employees had threatened to quit. In the aftermath, it has been alleged that Adam was furious with Sam over the surprise announcement of GPT store where people could create their own apps off the AI platform. The alleged concern is that this development would be a direct threat to a separate company Adam founded called Poe. It has also been alleged that Adam was concerned that ChatGPT would render Quora extinct.
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