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Henry Samueli grew from a modest immigrant-family childhood into an engineer and UCLA professor, then co-founded Broadcom around communications research that helped commercialize broadband networking chips. [1][2][3][4]
Engineering from a modest start
Samueli's parents reached the United States with very little money after wartime displacement. He worked weekends in his family's East Los Angeles liquor store while in school, then lived at home while earning bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from UCLA. [2][1]
After engineering work at TRW, Samueli joined UCLA's faculty and built a research program in broadband communications circuits and digital signal processing. That research became the technical foundation for Broadcom, which he co-founded in 1991 with his doctoral student Henry Nicholas. [1][3]
Samueli served for years as Broadcom's chief technology officer and held senior board roles after the original company was acquired by Avago and the combined business adopted the Broadcom name. His fortune reflects founder equity tied to the commercialization of communications technology rather than inherited business ownership. [3][1]
The later acquisition and name change also separate transaction scale from Samueli's personal proceeds. Broadcom became a much larger public semiconductor company with many shareholders, while Samueli's wealth was tied to the founder equity and compensation he retained through the company's growth and corporate transitions rather than the full value of the combined enterprise. [3][4]
Sources for background
Sources reviewed Sep 15, 2026.
- Henry Samueli, Ph.D. · UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
- Henry Samueli Wins 2012 Marconi Prize · UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
- Henry Samueli, Ph.D. · Broadcom Inc.
- Henry Samueli · Forbes · Mar 12, 2026
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