Silicon Valley • Computing Pioneers Updated: 2026 Reading Time: 57 Min.

Larry Page Biography: Google Co-Founder, PageRank, Alphabet Moonshots and Net Worth

Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is the American computer scientist, billionaire internet entrepreneur, and visionary who co-founded Google alongside Sergey Brin in 1998. Inventing the foundational PageRank algorithm that transformed web search by analyzing hyperlink citations, Page served as Google's founding CEO (1998–2001), returned as CEO in 2011 to launch Google+, and later architected the 2015 restructuring that created parent company Alphabet Inc., where he served as CEO until 2019. Renowned for his obsessive pursuit of "10x" thinking and planetary-scale moonshots—from autonomous driving (Waymo) and life-extension biotechnology (Calico) to artificial general intelligence (Google DeepMind)—Larry Page is one of the most transformative figures in the history of information technology.

Larry Page — Fast Facts & Computing Milestones

Full Name: Lawrence Edward Page

Date of Birth: March 26, 1973 (East Lansing, Michigan, US)

Estimated Net Worth: Approx. $135+ Billion (Bloomberg Billionaires Index / Forbes)

Height: 5 ft 11 in (181 cm)

Education: University of Michigan (B.S. in Computer Engineering, 1995), Stanford University (M.S. in Computer Science, 1998)

Key Invention: PageRank Algorithm (US Patent 6,285,999)

Company Founded: Google Inc. (Incorporated September 4, 1998) & Alphabet Inc. (2015)

Spouse: Lucinda Southworth (married December 8, 2007, on Necker Island)

Health Disclosure: Bilateral vocal cord paralysis diagnosed in 2013; founded Voice Health Institute

1. Computer Science Pedigree and Stanford's BackRub (1973–1998)

Born in East Lansing, Michigan, Page was immersed in computing from infancy. His father, Dr. Carl Victor Page, was a pioneer of computer science and artificial intelligence at Michigan State University, while his mother, Gloria Page, taught computer programming. Page built an inkjet printer entirely out of Lego blocks while an undergraduate at the **University of Michigan**, graduating with honors in 1995.

Entering the Ph.D. program in computer science at **Stanford University**, Page selected the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web as his dissertation topic. Teaming up with fellow graduate student **Sergey Brin** in 1995, Page conceived **BackRub**, a crawler that treated web links as academic citations—ranking pages based on the quantity and authority of incoming links. This algorithm, patented as **PageRank** (named both after the web page and Larry Page himself), became the mathematical core of Google.

2. Founding Google, Hyper-Growth, and Alphabet (1998–2019)

Incorporating **Google Inc.** on September 4, 1998, in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park with $100,000 in seed funding from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, Page and Brin built the world's most dominant search engine:

Founding CEO (1998–2001): Fostered an uncompromising engineering culture centered around 20% project time, uncompromised search latency, and clean homepage minimalism.
Return as CEO (2011–2015): Succeeded Eric Schmidt to streamline Google's product portfolio, accelerating mobile development through Android and acquiring **DeepMind for $500M in 2014**.
Creation of Alphabet (2015): Restructured Google into Alphabet Inc., separating core web services from visionary "Other Bets" including **Waymo** (autonomous vehicles), **Calico** (longevity biotech), and **Verily** (life sciences).