Arthur Rock (born August 19, 1926) is an American businessman and investor. Based in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, California, he was an early investor in major firms including

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Scientific Data Systems Scientific Data Systems (SDS), was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, Arthur Rock and Robert Beck, veterans of Packard Bell Corporation and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was the f ...

and Teledyne.

Early life

Rock was born and raised in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, in a Jewish family.Harvard Business School: "ARTHUR ROCK"
retrieved October 8, 2015 He was an only child and his father owned a small candy store where Rock worked in his youth. He joined the U.S. Army during World War II but the war ended before he was deployed. He then went to college on the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

in 1948 and earned an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

in 1951.

Career

Rock started his career in 1951 as a securities analyst in New York City, and then joined the corporate finance department of Hayden, Stone & Company in New York, where he focused on raising money for small high-technology companies. In 1957, when the " traitorous eight" left

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, later known as Shockley Transistor Corporation, was a pioneering semiconductor developer founded by William Shockley, and funded by Beckman Instruments, Inc., in 1955. It was the first high technology compan ...

, Rock was the one who helped them find a place to go: he convinced Sherman Fairchild to start

Fairchild Semiconductor Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...

. In 1961, he moved to California. Along with Thomas J. Davis Jr., he formed the San Francisco venture capital firm Davis & Rock. In 1968,

Robert Noyce Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He was also credited w ...

Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore's law which makes the observation that the number of transistors i ...

, and another

Fairchild Fairchild may refer to: Organizations * Fairchild Aerial Surveys, operated in cooperation with a subsidiary of Fairey Aviation Company * Fairchild Camera and Instrument * List of Sherman Fairchild companies, "Fairchild" companies * Fairchild ...

employee named Andy Grove, were ready to start a new company,

. Noyce contacted his good friend Rock, with whom he used to hike and camp. Rock described how Intel started:

Bob oycejust called me on the phone. We'd been friends for a long time.… Documents? There was practically nothing. Noyce's reputation was good enough. We put out a page-and-a-half little circular, but I'd raised the money even before people saw it.

Intel was incorporated in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

, on July 18, 1968, by chemist Gordon E. Moore (known for "

Moore's law Moore's law is the observation that the Transistor count, number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and Forecasting, projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of ...

"),

, a physicist and co-inventor of the

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

. Of the original 500,000 shares, Noyce held 245,000, Moore 245,000, and Rock 10,000; all at $1 per share. Rock raised $2.5 million of convertible debentures from a limited group of private investors in one day. Rock became Intel's first chairman. In 1978, Mike Markkula of

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

hooked up

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

and

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

with Rock. Rock bought 640,000 shares of Apple Computer and became a long-time director of the company. Rock's investments and personal guidance helped launch and govern a roster of corporate firms including

, Teledyne,

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

, Argonaut Insurance,

AirTouch AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American Mobile phone, wireless telephone service provider, created as a Corporate spin-off, spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the F ...

, the

Nasdaq Stock Market The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

, and Echelon Corporation.

Venture capital

During the 1950s, putting a venture capital deal together may have required the help of two or three other organizations to complete the transaction. It was a business that was growing very rapidly, and as the business grew, the transactions grew exponentially. Rock, one of the pioneers of

during his venturing the

is often credited with the introduction of the term "

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

" that has since become widely accepted.

Rock's law

Rock's law or Moore's second law, named for Arthur Rock and

, respectively, says that the cost of a

semiconductor chip An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

fabrication plant doubles every four years. As of 2023, the price had already reached about US$20 billion. Rock's law can be seen as the economic flip side to Moore's (first) law – that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles every two years. The latter is a direct consequence of the ongoing growth of the capital-intensive semiconductor industry— innovative and popular products mean more profits, meaning more capital available to invest in ever higher levels of

large-scale integration An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

, which in turn leads to the creation of even more innovative products.

Philanthropy

In 2003, Rock donated $25 million to the

to establish the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. He and his wife Toni founded the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Mr. Rock was co-founder and past president of The Basic Fund which gives scholarships to inner city children to attend K-8 private schools. He is also on the board of

Teach for America Teach For America (TFA) is an American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational excell ...

and Children's Scholarship Fund and an active funder of

KIPP The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a network of tuition-free, open-enrollment college-preparatory public charter schools serving students in historically underserved communities across the United States. Founded in 1994 by Mike Feinber ...

Rock has donated to many political causes, especially in the area of education. He has donated to more than 30 school board elections across the country. In 2021, he donated over $500,000 to the

2022 San Francisco Board of Education recall elections The 2022 San Francisco Board of Education recall elections (also called the San Francisco school board recall elections) were held on February 15, 2022. In a landslide election, over two-thirds of voters chose to remove three San Francisco Boar ...

Awards

* 2007 Achievement in Business, Corporate, and Philanthropic Leadership of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

* 2002 Business Leader of the Year, Harvard Business School Association of Northern California * 2001 Visionary Award, Software Development Forum * 1999 Private Equity Hall of Fame * 1999 Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship & Innovation Award of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

* 1997 Arents Award of

* 1995 California Business Hall of Fame * 1989 Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

* 1987 EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award Recipient, Northern California Region * Medal of Achievement of the

American Electronics Association The AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association) was a nationwide non-profit trade association that represented all segments of the technology industry. It lobbied governments at the state, federal, and international levels; provided acces ...

* Junior Achievement Hall of Fame * Bay Area ''Business'' Council ''Hall of Fame''

Personal life

He is married to lawyer Toni Rembe. Together with his wife, Rock has been a supporter of

Teach For America Teach For America (TFA) is an American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational excell ...

. The organization's annual Social Innovation Award is named in their honor. Rock was portrayed by actor J. K. Simmons in the 2013 biographical drama '' Jobs''.

References

External links

Gordon Moore and Arthur Rock Oral History Panel interview
July 2014, California {{DEFAULTSORT:Rock, Arthur 1926 births Living people American billionaires American computer businesspeople American financial analysts American investors American philanthropists Philanthropists from New York (state) Harvard Business School alumni Martin J. Whitman School of Management alumni Private equity and venture capital investors Businesspeople from Rochester, New York Directors of Apple Inc. United States Army personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews