# Brendan Eich

> Brendan Eich is the American programmer and technology executive who created the first JavaScript prototype at Netscape in a ten-day sprint, helped build Mozilla into an independent home for the open web, and now leads Brave Software. His career connects three recurring questions about the internet: who gets to program it, who gets to control its infrastructure, and who gets to observe its users.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Brave Software
- **Organizations:** Brave Software, Mozilla Project, Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla Corporation, Netscape Communications, Silicon Graphics
- **From:** Pittsburgh, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS in mathematics and computer science, Santa Clara University, MS in computer science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Created the first JavaScript prototype and the first SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine at Netscape in 1995., Co-founded the Mozilla Project, Mozilla Foundation, and Mozilla Corporation., Helped establish an independent institutional home for the open-source code that became Firefox.

## Career timeline

- **1980s-1990s** — Worked for seven years at Silicon Graphics on operating-system and network code.
- **1995** — Joined Netscape and created the first Mocha prototype, later named JavaScript, in a ten-day sprint; also designed the first SpiderMonkey engine.
- **1998** — Co-founded the Mozilla open-source project and served as its chief architect.
- **2003** — Helped spin out and co-found the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation after AOL closed the Netscape browser unit.
- **2005** — Became CTO of the newly formed Mozilla Corporation.
- **2014** — Was appointed Mozilla Corporation CEO on March 24 and voluntarily resigned on April 3 amid protests and scrutiny over a past political donation.
- **2015** — Co-founded Brave Software with Brian Bondy and became CEO.
- **2016** — Brave released early developer versions of its open-source browser.
- **2017** — Brave completed a $35 million Basic Attention Token sale.
- **2021** — Brave launched Brave Search and Brave Wallet; Eich co-authored the HOPL paper JavaScript: The First 20 Years with Allen Wirfs-Brock.
- **2023** — Brave launched Leo, an AI assistant built into the browser.
- **2025** — Brave passed 100 million monthly active users and introduced Ask Brave; Eich co-authored work on cryptographically verifiable privacy for Brave Leo.
- **2026** — Discussed indirect prompt injection, AI-generated code risk, and browser-agent security in a March interview with The Rollup.

## Achievements

- Created the first JavaScript prototype and the first SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine at Netscape in 1995.
- Co-founded the Mozilla Project, Mozilla Foundation, and Mozilla Corporation.
- Helped establish an independent institutional home for the open-source code that became Firefox.
- Co-founded Brave Software and leads its browser, search, advertising, wallet, and AI efforts.
- Co-authored JavaScript: The First 20 Years, a detailed historical account presented at HOPL IV.
- Received the first Web Innovator of the Year award in 1998, according to EBSCO's biographical research summary.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Appeared on The Rollup to discuss indirect prompt injection, the limits of AI-generated code, and Brave's work on browser-agent security.
- **2025-11** — Co-authored a Brave post describing an experimental Leo deployment using trusted execution environments for cryptographically verifiable privacy and model transparency.
- **2025-09** — Brave launched Ask Brave, combining conventional search results with a conversational AI interface backed by Brave Search's independent index.
- **2025-09** — Brave announced that its browser had passed 100 million monthly active users.
- **2025-06** — At Permissionless IV, argued for private browser-native advertising systems and advised developers to keep writing and reading code rather than over-relying on AI models.

## Links

- Website: https://brendaneich.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendaneich
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrendanEich
- GitHub: https://github.com/BrendanEich

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/brendan-eich
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-17