Andy Grove was born as András István Gróf on September 2, 1936, in Budapest, Hungary, to Jewish parents George and Maria Gróf. At the age of four, he contracted scarlet fever, which significantly affected his hearing. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Hungary, deportations of Hungarian Jews to concentration camps began. To survive, Grove and his mother assumed false identities and went into hiding in a friend's home, while his father was detained in a concentration camp. The family was reunited after the war.
Political unrest again impacted Grove's life during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. At the age of 20, he fled to Austria and later immigrated to the United States with the help of a friend.
After arriving in the U.S., Grove changed his name to Andrew S. Grove and enrolled at the City College of New York (CCNY), where he studied chemical engineering. He paid his tuition by working various odd jobs. In 1958, he married Eva Kastan, a fellow refugee. Grove graduated from CCNY in 1960, after which the couple moved to California. He pursued a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, completing his doctorate in 1963.
Grove began his professional career in the research and development department of Fairchild Semiconductor, a relatively small firm at the time. He contributed significantly to the early advancement of integrated circuits.
In 1968, Grove left Fairchild to join Intel Corporation, co-founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. As Intel’s third employee, Grove assumed the role of Director of Engineering, a promotion that surprised many due to his age and experience. Intel initially focused on manufacturing dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) in the early 1970s. However, shifting market demands led the company to begin prioritizing microprocessors.
Grove played a crucial role in convincing IBM to exclusively use Intel-manufactured microprocessors in its computers—a strategic decision that became a turning point in Intel’s history and helped establish its dominance in the industry.
| Birth Date: | 2 Sep, 1936 |
| Age: | 83 yrs |
| Occupations: | Engineer Entrepreneur Computer scientist Writer |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Budapest |
| Gender: | Male |
| Description: | Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, and author |
| Net Worth 2021: | 500 million |
