[2] Seid attended the University of Chicago under a special bachelor's degree program.
[3] His donation of Tripp Lite, worth $1.6 billion to the Marble Freedom Trust, a new conservative "dark money" group led by Leonard Leo, was called the largest single known contribution to a politically focused nonprofit as of 2022.
[2] According to a friend, Seid has described his giving as "attack philanthropy" with the aim of societal change.
[5] Seid's giving reflects his belief that global warming is not the result of human emissions.
[5] According to ProPublica, Seid appears to have given $17 million to fund the distribution of the documentary film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West during the 2008 presidential campaign.
[2] In 2020, Seid donated all Tripp Lite stock to the newly created nonprofit group Marble Freedom Trust headed by Leonard Leo, a conservative legal activist.
[2][1] The donation was made anonymously, but Seid's identity was first confirmed by The New York Times based on public financial disclosures.
[3][1] The New York Times described the donation as "among the largest single contributions ever to a politically focused nonprofit."
[13][14] Since 2005, Landis is the general and artistic director of Chamber Opera Chicago, which was founded by Seid.