How Robert F. Smith built a $107 billion software empire and became the wealthiest Black American
Billionaires Africa | 02.04.2026 22:17
Robert F. Smith was not supposed to intern at Bell Labs. He was a high school student in Denver, Colorado, and the program did not accept applicants his age. He called the company every day for weeks until a manager relented and gave him a spot. That persistence, the refusal to take no from a system that was not designed to include him, became the operating principle of a career that would produce the largest Black-owned fortune in American history.
