November - 2000 - issue > Cover

He was involved in the births of CAE Systems, Cirrus Logic, NeoMagic, Centillium Communications, and more. But the shocking failure of Momenta Corporation almost a decade ago made him completely re-think his place in the world. Our chat revealed a man who genuinely believes in bringing peace to the world…through technology.

Why keep founding so many companies?

There has been a different reason for each. With the first one, CAE systems, I wanted to have financial independence and be the master of my own domain. The second, Cirrus Logic, had a great team, and we had the chance to create a whole new industry — fabless semiconductors. For the third company, Momenta, I had a dream about a new type of user-friendly computer, because computers, even today, are not as friendly as they should be. Unfortunately, it was not a success, and I took about a year off and did a lot of thinking.

I decided that I had a mission in life to help and develop technologies that would bring peace in the world, and benefit our next generation. So I have created, since then, seven new companies (and I hope there will be many more) each of which will zero in on an area of communications, the Internet, or mobility—because these are the kinds of technologies which bring people closer together. Through the use of technology, we have an excellent chance to close the digital divide, and make a difference in the world.

I’m committed to bringing the Internet to everyone, everywhere in the world, at zero cost or at least an affordable cost. The Internet should become a channel for creating opportunities in education and in e-commerce so that everybody can have a global presence, and can work with each other and develop relationships. If everybody has a chance to do this they can develop friendship, tolerance, and appreciation for each other, and then it becomes tougher for them to drop bombs on each other.

What are the hurdles that we need to cross before this kind of dream can be realized?

There are about 200 million Internet users out there. This sounds fantastic, but there are 6.1 billion human beings on the globe, and 200 million is less than 4 percent of that. The gap has to be closed by opening up the telecommunications markets, and developing new technologies, which can be made available even to those people who are living in countries with closed markets. I would like access to telecommunications to become so easily available and so cheap that anyone can have a chance to participate in the Internet revolution.

Also, terminals have to be made low-cost, so everyone can afford them. And of course, people must know how to use these technologies, so education and training are important.

Elahian’s non-profit organization, Schools Online, has brought Internet connectivity to over 5,400 schools worldwide.