Top 10 Youngest Richest Billionaires in the World
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| Youngest Richest Billionaires in the World - Photo: Forbes |
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From an 18-year-old drugstore heir to founders of food delivery service DoorDash and electric vehicle parts maker Luminar, here are the ten billionaires still under the age of 30.
Austin Russell spent his teens doing research at the University of California at Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute. The lanky 6-foot-4 entrepreneur dropped out of Stanford in 2012 to found laser lidar (an acronym for light, detection and ranging) startup Luminar Technologies after getting a $100,000 fellowship from billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. Its sensors now help self-driving cars of such customers as Volvo, Toyota and Intel’s Mobileye see in 3D. The company listed via a SPAC merger in December 2020, catapulting him into the billionaire ranks overnight. At age 26, he is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire now that Kylie Jenner, 23, has fallen from the ranks.
MIT grad and former Wall Street trader Sam Bankman-Fried, 29, who founded and runs two crypto firms, Alameda Research and FTX, is by far the wealthiest twenty-something, with a net worth of $8.7 billion. FTX, a crypto derivative exchange, has proven to be particularly lucrative. As of March 5, Forbes estimated his equity in the company was worth nearly $2 billion, while his FTX tokens were worth more than $5.6 billion.
Who are the Youngest Richest Billionaires in the World Today?
#1 | Kevin David Lehmann
AGE: 18
NET WORTH: $3.3 Billion
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DRUGSTORES
COUNTRY: GERMANY
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| Photo: Deinupdate |
The world’s youngest billionaire on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires under 30 is an 18-year-old German Kevin David Lehmann. According to Forbes, Lehmann’s wealth is attributed to the stakes that he owns in his father’s drugstore chain DM-Drogery Market. Lehmann owns at least 50 per cent shares worth more than $ 3.3 billion, and the company has nearly 2,000 stores across Germany with 41,000 employees working under the brand name. Lehmann turned into a billionaire at a young age despite not being actively involved in the drugstore chain. Interestingly the child billionaire does not have a social media account and rarely makes an appearance in public.
“Guenther Lehmann, the 18-year-old billionaire’s father, transferred a stake in German drugstore chain 'drogerie markt' to his son when he was 14, but it remained under trusteeship until his 18th birthday, which was in September 2020,” Forbes wrote about the youngest billionaire on the planet. Lehmann acquired trusteeship to the firm when he turned 18 in September 2020, last year. He is among a handful of teenage billionaires, including Norwegian heiress Alexandra Andresen, who made on the Forbes richest list aged just 19 in 2016, and the family’s twelfth prince in line German Albert von Thurn und Taxis, who actually inherited a fortune from his royal family in 2018. Due to financial challenges, Thurn und Taxis fell from the Forbes list.
#2 | Wang Zelong
AGE: 24
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PIGMENT PRODUCTION
COUNTRY: CHINA
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| Photo: C&G Pigment |
Wang inherited a stake worth more than $1.3 billion in CNNC Hua Yuan Titanium Dioxide Co., which trades on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The company produces titanium dioxide pigment, a white pigment that can be used in coatings, plastics, ink and other materials.
#3 | Alexandra Andresen
AGE: 24
NET WORTH: $1.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: INVESTMENT FIRM
COUNTRY: NORWAY
#4 | Katharina Andresen
AGE: 25
NET WORTH: $1.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: INVESTMENT FIRM
RESIDENCE: NORWAY
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| Photo: National Post |
The Andresen sisters each inherited 42% of Ferd, a Bærum, Norway-based investment company that reels in about $2 billion in annual revenue. Their father, Johan, still runs the business.
#5 | Austin Russell
AGE: 26
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: AUTONOMOUS CAR TECH
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
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| Photo: The Software Report |
College dropout Austin Russell founded and runs automotive sensor firm Luminar Technologies, which went public in a SPAC merger in Dec. 2020. An optics prodigy, Russell developed the idea for Luminar when he was just 17 and studying physics at Stanford University. He dropped out of college in 2012 after receiving a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, a program funded by billionaire Peter Thiel to nurture entrepreneurs. Following Luminar's listing on Nasdaq, Russell became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 25. Luminar competes with laser lidar makers like Velodyne and Aeva, which make high-tech sensors to help self-driving vehicles "see" their surroundings.
#6 | Gustav Magnar Witzoe
AGE: 27
NET WORTH: $4.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: FISH FARMING
COUNTRY: NORWAY
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| Photo: MonMona |
Witzoe owns nearly half of SalMar ASA, the Norwegian salmon producer his father founded in 1991. Witzoe’s fortune nearly doubled in the past year thanks to SalMar’s strong market performance. His stake in the firm was gifted by his father in 2013.
#7 | Andy Fang
AGE: 28
NET WORTH: $2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DOORDASH
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
#8 | Stanley Tang
AGE: 28
NET WORTH: $2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DOORDASH
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
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| Photo: BusinessInsider |
DoorDash, the food delivery app Fang and Tang co-founded in 2013, became more prevalent (and valuable) than ever during the pandemic as restaurants and customers pivoted to delivery. It went public on the New York Stock Exchange in December. Fang previously served as the company’s chief technology officer, while Tang was the chief product officer.
#9 | Sam Bankman-Fried
AGE: 29
NET WORTH: $8.7 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: CRYPTO TRADING
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
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| Photo: Blockpaper |
The founder and CEO of quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda Research, managing $2.5 billion in assets, mostly from the Serum (SRM) coin that Bankman-Fried helped create. In 2019, he founded crypto-derivatives platform FTX, which recently raised $40 million at a $1.2 billion valuation. FTX trades futures on cryptocurrencies. He owns approximately 50% of the company, which generated roughly $50 million revenue so far this year, with a profit of $30 million.
#10 | Jonathan Kwok
AGE: 29
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: REAL ESTATE
COUNTRY/TERRITORY: HONG KONG
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| Photo: Luxuo Vietnam |
Jonathan and his older brother, Geoffrey, 35, each inherited from their late father Walter Kwok (d. 2018) a portion of his stake in Hong Kong property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties. Walter was ousted as chairman of Sun Hung Kai in 2008 as the result of a feud with his brothers Thomas and Raymond Kwok. He then started property developer Empire Group Holdings, which Jonathan and Geoffrey now run.
| According to Forbes' list, Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person for the fourth year running, worth $177 billion, up $64 billion from a year ago as a result of surging Amazon shares. Elon Musk—the biggest gainer in dollar terms—rocketed into the No. 2 spot with a $151 billion fortune, a whopping $126.4 billion more than a year ago, when he ranked No. 31 and was worth $24.6 billion. The main reason: a 705% climb in Tesla shares. French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault holds onto his spot at No. 3 but his fortune nearly doubled to $150 billion, from $76 billion, due to an 86% rise in the shares of LVMH, owner of brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior and cosmetics retailer Sephora. The top ten richest are worth $1.15 trillion, up by two-thirds from $686 billion last year. Altogether, Europe’s billionaires are $1 trillion richer than a year ago. |
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