Ted Waitt established the Waitt Foundation in 1993 to reflect his family’s heartfelt commitment to give back to the community by “helping good people do great things” through research and education. Since then, the foundation has donated over $100 million to non-profit and charitable organizations both at home and abroad.

Theodore "Ted" Waitt (born January 18, 1963) is an American billionaire who was a co-founder of Gateway, Inc.

Waitt was born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa and attended the University of Iowa. Waitt and Mike Hammond started Gateway 2000 on September 5, 1985 with a $10,000 loan secured by Waitt's grandmother. The Company began on Waitt's father's cattle ranch in Sioux City, Iowa, moved to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa and later to North Sioux City, South Dakota, where they continued to develop their "down-home" branding, complete with computer boxes that patterned with black and white Holstein cow patterns.

He led a move of the company's headquarters from South Dakota to La Jolla, California in 1998. Mr. Waitt released the reins as CEO of Gateway in late 1999 to Jeffrey Weitzen, but returned to the post in January 2001.

In 2004, after the acquisition of eMachines, Waitt turned over day-to-day operations of Gateway and the title of CEO to Wayne Inouye, the former CEO of eMachines. In May 2005, he resigned as chairman of the company ending a near 20-year run with the company he co-founded.

Waitt has been featured on numerous lists by Forbes magazine. He has held a spot on both the Forbes 400 Richest in America as well as Forbes list of the World's Billionaires. He has also been listed on Fortune Magazines "40 Richest Under 40", a list of the 40 wealthiest self-made Americans under the age of 40 in the United States. The 2008 Forbes 400 List listed Waitt with a net worth estimated at $1.4 billion. Waitt fell off the Forbes 400 list in 2009 with a net worth estimate of $900 million. The $500 million drop from the previous year was explained by "souring real estate" and a divorce settlement.

According to the September 2002 issue of Fortune Magazine, Waitt sold $1.1 billion in Gateway stock during the dot com era.