Thomas M. Siebel (; born November 20, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman, technologist, and author. He was the founder of enterprise software company Siebel Systems and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company. He is the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company with interests in investment management, commercial real estate, agribusiness, and philanthropy. Early life and education Siebel was born in Chicago, one of seven children of Arthur Francis Siebel, a Harvard-educated lawyer, and Ruth A. (née Schmid) Siebel. His family was Lutheran. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a B.A. in history, an M.B.A., an M.S. in computer science, and an honorary doctorate of engineering. Business career Between 1984 and 1990, Siebel was an executive at Oracle Corporation, where he held a number of management positions. Siebel served as chief executive officer of Gain Technology, a multimedia software company that merged with Sybase in December 1992. Siebel was the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Siebel Systems, which was acquired by Oracle in January, 2006. Siebel is the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company. Siebel Systems Siebel Systems was a software company primarily engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications. As an executive at Oracle, Siebel proposed the idea of creating enterprise software applications tailored for marketing, sales, and customer service functions. Oracle management declined his proposal. Siebel left Oracle to found Siebel Systems in 1993 to pursue that opportunity. In 1999, Siebel Systems became the fastest-growing technology company in the United States. Siebel Systems grew to over 8,000 employees in 32 countries, more than 4,500 corporate customers, and annual revenue greater than $2 billion before merging with Oracle in January 2006. C3.ai In 2009, Siebel founded C3.ai, originally to provide enterprise software for energy management. C3.ai currently provides an enterprise AI software platform and applications for multiple commercial uses, including energy management, predictive maintenance, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, inventory optimization, and predictive CRM. Its customers include 3M, Royal Dutch Shell, the US Air Force, and New York Power Authority. C3.ai was included in the 2019 “CNBC Disruptor 50” list, with a valuation of $2.1 billion. Through C3.ai, he created a collaboration to use AI to help address COVID-19. Enterprise AI software applies artificial intelligence methods, such