A pioneering Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Rock was an early investor in major firms including Intel, Apple Computer, Scientific Data Systems, and Teledyne.
Rock graduated with a Bachelor's degree in business administration from Syracuse University in 1948 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1951. He started his career that same year as a security analyst in New York City, and then joined the corporate finance department of Hayden, Stone & Company, where he focused on raising money for small high-technology companies.
After graduating from Harvard, Rock worked as an investment banker in New York. In 1957, when the Traitorous Eight left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, he was the one who helped them find Sherman Fairchild to start Fairchild Semiconductor.
In 1961, he moved to California, where, along with Thomas J. Davis, Jr., he formed the San Francisco venture capital firm Davis & Rock. In 2003, Rock donated $25 million to the Harvard Business School to establish the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
