THE TWO HENRYS: Henry T. Nicholas III established Broadcom in 1991 in a spare bedroom of his Redondo Beach home with Henry Samueli, who tops the 2025 OC’s Wealthiest list – overtaking Irvine Company’s Donald Bren. The Henrys made Irvine the home of their corporate headquarters for many years and took the company public in 1998. Resigned as CEO in 2003 when he was 43. Broadcom was acquired in 2016 by Avago Technologies in a deal valued at $37B. Nicholas’ reported gain was about $1.4B. Broadcom is now based in Palo Alto, though it maintains offices in Irvine.
KEY METRIC: Both Henrys have benefited from a boom in the chipmaker’s stock. Shares are up about 76% from a year ago and have joined the trillion-dollar market cap club. Investors are bullish as the chipmaker has seen strong demand for its AI-related chips with revenue growing 46% to $4.4B in the second quarter.
BY THE NUMBERS: While Forbes estimated his wealth at $21.3B this year, we’re not sure if that estimate includes his 2008 divorce, which is the primary reason why our wealth estimate lags behind Samueli, who remains Broadcom’s chairman. It’s not publicly known if Nicholas still owns Broadcom shares as he isn’t mentioned in this year’s proxy. The Business Journal is betting he still owns a chunk, so we estimate his wealth has risen 20%.
PHILANTHROPY: Principal benefactor of the nonprofit Nicholas Academic Centers, which he co-founded in 2008 with retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jack K. Mandel, to provide academic support to under-resourced high school students. Nicholas has donated $57.7M to support the three NAC locations in downtown Santa Ana, Valley High School and Century High School. The centers have graduated 2,070 students, including 198 this year. Nearly 100% go on to enroll in post-secondary schools with 75% attending a four-year university.
ACTIVISM: Namesake nonprofit, Henry T. Nicholas, III Foundation, was established in 2006 to support the rights of crime victims through organizations such as Marsy’s Law for All, named after Nicholas’ sister who was murdered in 1983.
