Mike Moritz

Mike Moritz
Born	Michael Jonathan Moritz
Birthplace	Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Nationality	British, American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, journalist, author
Known for	Partner at Sequoia Capital; early investor in Google, Yahoo!, PayPal
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)

Sir Michael Jonathan Moritz (born in Cardiff, Wales) is a British-American venture capitalist, journalist, and author who spent more than three decades as a partner at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms. Over the course of his career, Moritz became one of the most influential technology investors in the world, playing a pivotal role in the early financing of companies including Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, and LinkedIn. A former journalist at Time magazine, Moritz transitioned from chronicling the technology industry to shaping it, building a track record of early-stage investments that generated extraordinary returns and helped define the modern internet economy. He is described by publications such as TechCrunch as a "billionaire VC" and by CNBC as a "legendary venture investor." Beyond his investment career, Moritz has become a prominent public commentator on technology policy, immigration, and politics, frequently contributing opinion pieces to the Financial Times. He has been described as the wealthiest person of Welsh origin.

Early Life

Michael Moritz was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He grew up in the Welsh Jewish community, and accounts from his youth describe him as a figure who made an impression on those around him even at a young age. In a 2025 article published by The Jewish Chronicle, journalist Gaby Koppel recounted her memories of Moritz as a youth club leader in their shared community in Wales. Koppel wrote that she had predicted Moritz had "a big future" based on her encounters with him during their teenage years, describing him as someone who stood out among his peers in Cardiff's Jewish community.

Moritz's Welsh and Jewish heritage would later inform aspects of his worldview as a public commentator, particularly on issues of immigration and opportunity. His personal trajectory—from Cardiff to the uppermost echelons of Silicon Valley wealth—has been cited by journalists and commentators as emblematic of the possibilities afforded by international mobility and the immigration pathways that he has publicly defended throughout his career.

Education

Moritz attended Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he studied history. He later moved to the United States and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His academic background in both the humanities and business provided a foundation for his subsequent careers in journalism and venture capital.

Career

Journalism and Writing

Before entering venture capital, Moritz worked as a journalist for Time magazine, where he covered the nascent technology industry in Silicon Valley during the early 1980s. His reporting gave him an intimate understanding of the culture, ambitions, and dynamics of the technology sector at a formative moment. During this period, Moritz also authored several books about the technology industry, including a notable early account of Apple Inc., which documented the company's origins and the personalities behind its founding. His journalistic background provided him with analytical skills and a network of contacts that would prove instrumental when he transitioned to investing.

Sequoia Capital

Moritz joined Sequoia Capital in 1986, beginning a tenure that would span more than three decades and establish him as one of the most successful venture capitalists in the history of Silicon Valley. Sequoia Capital, founded by Don Valentine in 1972, had already earned a reputation as one of the premier venture firms in the technology industry by the time Moritz arrived. Under Moritz's stewardship alongside partners such as Doug Leone, the firm expanded its global footprint and deepened its involvement in the internet revolution of the 1990s and 2000s.

Moritz led or was instrumental in Sequoia's investments in a series of companies that became defining platforms of the internet era. Among his most notable investments were early-stage bets on Yahoo!, which became one of the first major internet portals and went public in 1996; Google, where Sequoia was one of two venture firms to provide initial funding in 1999, in a round that became one of the most profitable venture investments ever made; and PayPal, the online payments company that was acquired by eBay in 2002 and later re-emerged as an independent public company. Moritz was also involved in Sequoia's investments in LinkedIn, Zappos, Kayak.com, and numerous other technology companies.

His investment philosophy emphasized identifying founders with exceptional determination and backing companies at their earliest and most uncertain stages. Moritz was known for his thoroughness in evaluating potential investments, a trait often attributed to his journalistic training, and for his willingness to engage deeply with portfolio companies after making an investment.

Moritz served as a managing member of Sequoia Capital and was a central figure in the firm's operations for decades. He stepped back from day-to-day investing activities in the mid-2010s, though he retained connections to the firm. News reports from 2024 and 2025 continued to identify him in connection with Sequoia, with CNBC describing him as "Sequoia's Mike Moritz" and TechCrunch referring to him as "the former Sequoia Capital honcho."

Public Commentary and Op-Ed Writing

Following his transition away from active venture investing, Moritz became an increasingly visible public commentator, using his platform to weigh in on issues at the intersection of technology, immigration policy, and politics. He has been a regular contributor of opinion pieces to the Financial Times, where his columns have addressed a range of subjects with characteristic directness.

Views on Immigration Policy

Moritz has been a vocal critic of policies that he views as detrimental to the ability of the United States to attract and retain skilled workers from abroad. In September 2025, he published an op-ed in the Financial Times criticizing a proposed increase in H-1B visa fees to $100,000, describing the policy as a "brutish extortion scheme." In the piece, Moritz compared the White House's approach to that of fictional mob boss Tony Soprano's pork store, drawing a sharp analogy between government fee extraction and organized crime. The op-ed attracted significant media attention, with TechCrunch and The Tech Buzz among the outlets covering his remarks.

Moritz's advocacy on immigration issues is informed by his own experience as an immigrant. Having moved from Wales to the United States, he has repeatedly argued that the country's openness to foreign-born talent has been a foundational driver of innovation in Silicon Valley and beyond. His criticisms of restrictive immigration proposals have been consistent across political administrations and party lines.

Views on Technology and Politics

Moritz has also commented publicly on the relationship between the technology industry and political power. In August 2024, he wrote a Financial Times op-ed criticizing technology investors and executives who had expressed support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. According to CNBC, Moritz argued that Trump's tech backers were "making a big mistake," taking aim at those in the venture capital and technology communities who had aligned themselves with Trump's political agenda.

In August 2025, Moritz publicly defended Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan after President Trump demanded Tan's resignation. In comments reported by CNBC and the Times of India, Moritz called on Intel to stand by its chief executive, characterizing Trump's intervention as "artless bullying." Moritz stated that "there is no one better equipped" than Tan to lead Intel, expressing support for the CEO's efforts to restructure and revitalize the American semiconductor manufacturer.

These public interventions positioned Moritz as one of the more outspoken figures in the venture capital world willing to directly criticize presidential actions and their impact on the technology sector. His willingness to challenge both political leaders and his peers in the investment community has been a distinguishing feature of his post-Sequoia public profile.

Philanthropy

Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, have been significant philanthropists, directing substantial resources toward education, the arts, and social services. They have supported institutions in both the United States and the United Kingdom, including efforts related to Moritz's Welsh heritage. Moritz received a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his philanthropic contributions, recognizing his charitable work in the United Kingdom.

Personal Life

Moritz resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is married to Harriet Heyman, an author and businesswoman. Moritz holds both British and American citizenship, reflecting his origins in Wales and his long residence in the United States. He has maintained connections to his Welsh roots and to the British Jewish community in which he was raised, as evidenced by coverage of his early life in publications such as The Jewish Chronicle.

Moritz is known for maintaining a relatively low public profile compared to some of his peers in the venture capital industry, though his Financial Times columns and occasional public statements have made him an increasingly prominent voice on matters of public policy in his later career. He has been described in media reports as a billionaire, a status derived from his decades of venture capital investing and the returns generated by his portfolio of technology investments.

Recognition

Moritz has received numerous forms of recognition over the course of his career. He was awarded a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), one of the highest honors bestowed by the British Crown, for his services to philanthropy. The honor recognized his charitable contributions in the United Kingdom and beyond.

Within the venture capital and technology industries, Moritz is recognized as one of the most successful investors of his generation. His involvement in the early funding rounds of companies such as Google, Yahoo!, and PayPal placed him at the center of some of the most consequential financial events of the internet era. The Midas List, an annual ranking of top technology investors published by Forbes, has repeatedly featured Moritz among its highest-ranked venture capitalists.

Media coverage has consistently identified Moritz as a figure of exceptional influence in Silicon Valley. CNBC has described him as a "legendary venture investor," while TechCrunch has referred to him as a "billionaire VC" and "the former Sequoia Capital honcho." The Jewish Chronicle described him as "the wealthiest Welshman ever," reflecting the scale of wealth he accumulated through his investing career.

Legacy

Moritz's career bridges two distinct eras of Silicon Valley: the personal computer revolution of the 1980s, which he observed and documented as a journalist, and the internet and mobile revolutions of the 1990s through the 2010s, which he helped finance as a venture capitalist. His transition from reporting on technology companies to investing in them—and his success in the latter endeavor—made him a singular figure in the history of the industry.

His investment record at Sequoia Capital contributed to the firm's status as one of the most successful venture capital partnerships in history. The companies he backed—Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, LinkedIn, and others—collectively reshaped global commerce, communication, and information access. Moritz's role in identifying and supporting these companies at their earliest stages placed him among a small group of investors whose decisions had outsized effects on the trajectory of the technology industry.

Beyond his investment portfolio, Moritz's public commentary on immigration, politics, and the responsibilities of the technology sector has added a dimension to his legacy as a figure willing to engage with contentious policy debates. His criticisms of H-1B visa fee increases, his opposition to what he characterized as political bullying of corporate leaders, and his willingness to challenge fellow technology investors on their political alignments have distinguished him from many of his peers in the venture capital world who have preferred to avoid public political engagement.

His philanthropic efforts, recognized by the British Crown with a KBE, represent a further component of his public legacy, reflecting a commitment to returning resources to educational and cultural institutions in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

As a Welsh-born immigrant who became one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in American technology, Moritz's career has also been cited as an illustration of the role that international talent and immigration have played in the development of Silicon Valley—a theme that has been central to his own public advocacy.