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 like 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.
He is also one of just four self-made billionaires in their 20s—all new—who made this year’s Forbes World’s Billionaires list. The others include Andy Fang and Stanley Tang, both 28, who joined the three comma club after the food delivery service that they founded in 2013, DoorDash, went public in December. They are worth $2 billion apiece.
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 derivatives 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.
Altogether Forbes found just ten billionaires under the age of 30—the same number as a year ago, despite the fact that the number of total billionaires increased by a net of 660 to 2,755. These ten young billionaires are worth a collective $29.5 billion, $13 billion more than a year ago.
The youngest billionaire on the planet is German heir Kevin David Lehmann, who is just 18. His father, Guenther Lehmann, 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. Not surprisingly, he is one of just a handful of billionaires to ever debut in the ranks while still a teenager. Others have included Norwegian heiress Alexandra Andresen, who made her debut at age 19 in 2016 and still ranks among the world’s youngest, and German Albert von Thurn und Taxis, the 12th prince in his family line, who officially inherited his fortune on his 18th birthday but later fell from the ranks following the 2008 financial crisis.
Here are the 10 youngest members of the 2021 World’s Billionaires list, starting with the youngest. Net worths were calculated using stock prices and exchange rates from March 5, 2021.
#1 | Kevin David Lehmann
NET WORTH: $3.3 Billion
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DRUGSTORES
COUNTRY: GERMANY
Lehmann is now the world’s youngest billionaire after he officially inherited his father’s 50% stake in German drugstore chain drogerie markt.
#2 | Wang Zelong
AGE: 24
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PIGMENT PRODUCTION
COUNTRY: CHINA
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
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
An optics prodigy, Russell dropped out of Stanford in 2012 after receiving a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship to start Luminar Technologies, which makes sensors and other tech for autonomous vehicles. Its sensors now help self-driving cars of such customers as Volvo and Toyota by bouncing laser beams off nearby objects and vehicles’ surroundings. Luminar went public through a SPAC merger in December. Russell owns about a third of the company.
#6 | Gustav Magnar Witzoe
AGE: 27
NET WORTH: $4.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: FISH FARMING
COUNTRY: NORWAY
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
DoorDash, the food delivery app Fang and Tang cofounded 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
Bankman-Fried built his massive crypto fortune at an astonishing speed, having launched both trading firm Alameda Research, which manages $2.5 billion in assets, and crypto derivative trading platform FTX. Bankman-Fried embraces a philosophy called Effective Altruism: His goal is to make as much money as he can so that he can give away as much as possible. In 2020, he gave $5 million to a pro-Biden super PAC, making him one of the president’s biggest donors.
#10 | Jonathan Kwok
AGE: 29
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: REAL ESTATE
COUNTRY/TERRITORY: HONG KONG
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.
