American computational biochemist, computer scientist, hedge fund manager and businessman David Shaw has an estimated net worth of $4.87 billion as of March 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Of Jewish ancestry, David Elliot Shaw was born on March 29, 1951. After completing his bachelor's degree from the University of California, San Diego where he graduated as summa cum laude, Shaw attended Stanford University to complete his Ph.D. Six years later, he became a part of Morgan Stanley and by 1988, he founded his own hedge fund company, "D. E. Shaw & Co.", which makes use of proprietary algorithms for securities trading. He is currently married to journalist and personal finance commentator, Beth Kobliner.

Eventually, he was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by President Bill Clinton, and later became the Panel on Educational Technology Chairman. Fifteen years later, he was again appointed to the same post but by this time, it was President Barack Obama. He now serves as the Chief Scientist of D. E. Shaw Research.