A row with Steve Jobs, a career switch into venture capital, and the subsequent billions – the tale of the richest Welshman
Billionaire Sir Michael Moritz, 70 and his American writer wife, Harriet Heyman top the Welsh rich list, according to the Sunday Times, with a wealth of £4.435bn.
Mr Moritz had humble beginnings in the Welsh capital. Born to a Cardiff University academic, Mr Moritz has spoken of feeling like an “outsider” during his time growing up in Cardiff.
Both his parents were Jewish refugees who had fled Hitler’s Nazi Germany. His father, Ludwig was a Cardiff University classics professor, and became its vice principal in the 1970s. Mr Moritz attended Howardian High School in the capital as grew up.
During a clip, called ‘Michael Moritz and the Underdog’, he said: “If you grew up in Wales it makes you understand what being an outsider is like. For money-saving tips, sign up to our Money newsletter here
“Many of the kids I went to school with had dads who were unemployed or in part-time work.
“Many of them didn’t have a lot of money and London was a long way away – we were outside the mainstream.”
After he left Cardiff, Mr Moritz went on to graduate from Oxford, following which he moved to the United States and was hired by Time and worked as a journalist.
It was during this time — in his early career as journalist when Moritz found himself having exclusive access to a new tech company, which has now turned into a technology giant worth trillions of dollars: Apple.
It wasn’t until Mr Moritz had a falling out with Apple founder Steve Jobs, that the journalist finally made the leap to become a venture capitalist.
He was the first person ever to document the development of the tech giant, and publish a book on it. It is believed that though Jobs cooperated with the Welshman initially, he reportedly did not authorise the final draft of the book for publication.
After a serious row over other articles in the Time Magazine, Jobs reportedly became so furious that he threatened to fire any employee that talked to Mr Moritz.
Mr Moritz later said that a 1983 profile of Jobs that he originally wrote for the magazine’s Man of the Year issue was “poisoned with a gossipy benzene” by Time. It was then he realised that he needed greater control over his work.
He said the experience “made me decide that I would never again work anywhere I could not exert a large amount of control over my own destiny or where I would be paid by the word.” Both Moritz and Jobs reportedly never resolved his differences.
When he officially left journalism, Mr Moritz made a career switch and was employed at the Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in 1986.
The Welshman went on to co-found Technologic Partners, a company specialising in technology newsletters and conferences.
His investments in internet firms include some of the top firms of the present like, Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, Yahoo!, Skyscanner, and YouTube. However, it is uncertain if even Moritz could have foreseen the behemoth that Google would become.
In 2015, Moritz revisited his writing roots, collaborating with Sir Alex Ferguson on his book, Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United.
Sequoia informed through a letter to its partners in 2023, that Moritz had left the firm after 38 years.
Politically Mr Moritz is known for having donated to the Lincoln Project, which is a republican-led initiative which opposed the re-election of Donald Trump and the senators that support him.
In 2010, he was also awarded an honorary fellowship by Cardiff University, while Aberystwyth University made him a fellow in 2014.
In recognition for his services towards promoting British economic interests and philanthropic work, Mr Moritz was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2013 birthday honours list.
He has signed The Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least 50% of his wealth to charity. In 2008, Moritz and his wife gifted $50m US to Christ Church, his Oxford college, marking the largest single donation in the college’s history.
In 2012, Moritz donated £75m to Oxford University to fund £11,000 scholarships for students from families earning less than £16,000 annually, making it the largest financial donation to an undergraduate university in European history.
Though we continue to use several big tech applications everyday, not many know that most of them share a common denominator — Wales, and a Welshman.
