A 30-year-old college dropout has dethroned Taylor Swift from her spot as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Swift became a billionaire after the Eras Tour
Taylor Swift reached billionaire status after her Eras Tour proved to be a huge success, with the singer reportedly making over $4 billion from the tour.
The new Forbes rich list, however, has shown that the 35-year-old is no longer the youngest self-made billionaire out there.
The Forbes rich list says it all
According to Forbes, the Shake It Off singer has a net worth of $1.6 billion, and her spot as the youngest self-made billionaire has recently been taken over by Lucy Guo.
Guo has swiped the title after amassing a net worth of $1.3 billion at just 30 years old.
Guo is a tech co-founder
The 30-year-old tech tycoon is the co-founder of Scale AI, a data annotation company based in California. It provides labelled data which is used to train artificial intelligence applications.
She dropped out of college
Guo, who was studying computer science, dropped out of college in favour of a fellowship, and it seems things turned out great for her.
She was only 21 when she founded Scale AI with Alexandr Wang, who was 19 at the time. This was back in 2016.
They fell out about running the company
Guo handled operations and product design teams and Wang acted as CEO of the company, but the pair fell out at one point.
The reported disagreement about how the company would be run resulted in Guo leaving Scale AI at the time.
But Guo kept a five percent stake
Speaking about leaving the company, Guo told the tech site The Information in 2024, “We had a difference of opinion but I am proud of what Scale AI has accomplished.”
But Guo kept a five percent stake in the firm, which, according to Forbes, is worth around $1.2 billion.
She once spoke about her upbringing
Speaking to Forbes about her fortune, Guo said, “I don’t really think about it much, it’s a bit wild. Too bad it’s all on paper haha.”
The billionaire also once spoke about having an ‘incredibly frugal’ upbringing. She told Fortune that until she had ‘made her first $10 million’, she kept ‘living cheaply’ well into her adult life.
Guo said to ‘live below your means’
The billionaire added in 2023, “Be frugal and always live below your means.”
“A lot of people up their lifestyles when they start making more money, which causes them to not save as much. The more money you save, the more you can invest, which compounds over the years. Your network is your net worth.”