Lucy Guo: The Rise of AI's Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire

'I'm the world's youngest self-made female billionaire'

A 30-year-old US tech entrepreneur born to immigrant parents has unseated Taylor Swift as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. Lucy Guo, who is worth an estimated $1.3bn (£1bn) according to Forbes, told The Telegraph that her new title "doesn't really feel like much". "I think that maybe reality hasn't hit yet, right? Because most of my money is still on paper," she said. Ms Guo's wealth stems from her 5pc stake in Scale AI, a company she co-founded in 2016. The artificial intelligence (AI) business is currently raising money in a deal likely to value it at $25bn. That valuation - and the billionaire status it has bestowed upon Ms Guo - underlines the current AI boom, which has reinvigorated Silicon Valley and is now reshaping the world. Everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Sir Keir Starmer have praised the potential of the technology, which is forecast to save billions but may also destroy scores of jobs. The AI craze has caused the founders and chief executives of companies in the space to climb the world's rich list as they cash in on soaring valuations and increasing demand for their companies' technologies. Ms Guo is also an exemplar of the American dream. Born to Chinese immigrant parents, she dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University to find her fortune. Like Mr Zuckerberg before her, the decision to ditch traditional education in favour of entrepreneurship has now paid off handsomely. Still, it was not a decision her parents approved of at the time. "They stopped talking to me for a while - which is fine," she said. "I get it, because, you know, the immigrant mentality was like, 'we sacrificed everything, we came to a new country, left all our relatives behind, to try to give our kids a better future'. "I think they viewed it as a sign of disrespect. They're like, 'wow, you don't appreciate all the sacrifices we did for you, and you don't love us'. So they were extremely hurt." They have since reconciled. In her first year of college, Ms Guo took part in hackathons and coding competitions, helping her to realise that "you can just create a startup out of like, nothing". She was awarded a Thiel Fellowship, which provides recipients with $200,000 over two years to support them to drop out of university and pursue other work, such as launching a startup. The fellowship is funded by Peter Thiel, the former PayPal chief executive. Mr Thiel, who donated $1.25m to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has been an enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurship, and also co-founded Palantir, the data analytics and AI software firm now worth billions.

Who is Lucy Guo, the youngest 'self-made' billionaire in new Forbes ranking?

Guo has a net worth of $1.3 billion thanks to her business ventures in artificial intelligence. She cofounded the startup Scale AI when she was just 21, Forbes writes. Even though she left the company, she maintained her 5% stake in the company - and that's about to pay off big time. Scale AI is now valued at $25 billion and was seeking a tender offer, which would allow stakeholders to sell shares. She's not the richest "self-made" woman on Forbes' list, but she is the youngest to achieve billionaire status on the list. Guo is 30 years old. Previously, Taylor Swift, 35, was ranked as the youngest self-made billionaire. "I don't really think about it much, it's a bit wild. Too bad it's all on paper haha," Guo reportedly said via text to Forbes when they informed her of her ranking. Guo attended Carnegie Mellon to study computer science but dropped out before graduating. She then became a fellow under billionaire Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal. After leaving Scale AI, Guo started a venture capital firm of her own, according to Forbes. That firm made a couple of smart investments, further contributing to her net worth. Guo has also founded her own company, Passes, a platform for online content creators that has been compared to OnlyFans. Guo grew up in the Bay Area of California, and now splits her time between Los Angeles and Miami, according to Realtor. She reportedly owns a luxury condo in Miami and a modern home in L.A. - each worth millions.

Meet Lucy Guo, the New Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire Dethroning Taylor Swift

Despite a messy exit from Scale AI, Guo's portfolio -- and profile -- keep growing. Lucy Guo, the 30-year-old co-founder of high-flying A.I. startup Scale AI, just dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made female billionaire. With a net worth nearing $1.3 billion, Guo landed at No. 26 on Forbes' annual "America's Richest Self-Made Women" list, published yesterday (June 3). Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Raised in Fremont, Calif. by Chinese immigrant parents, Guo was "always an entrepreneur growing up," she said in a 2023 interview -- selling Pokémon cards and colored pencils in kindergarten. By second grade, she was coding; soon after, she was building bots that made her thousands. In 2014, at just 20 years old, she dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied computer science, after receiving the Thiel Fellowship. The program, backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, offers $200,000 over two years to help promising college students build companies -- on the condition they leave school behind. Around that time, she interned at Facebook, had a brief stint at Quora in 2015, and then became Snapchat's first female product designer, working full-time for a year. At Quora, she met Alexandr Wang, a math prodigy two years younger who rose quickly at the company. In 2016, the two founded Scale AI -- initially as a healthcare platform matching patients with doctors for specific procedures. The concept earned them admission to Y Combinator's summer 2016 batch. A friend at Y Combinator floated the idea of building an "API for Humans" -- a streamlined way for people to exchange data at scale. The concept stuck. It quickly attracted funding from Accel and morphed into Scale AI's core business: supplying the high-quality, labeled data that powers A.I. systems. By employing thousands of contractors to annotate images and data points, Scale AI helps companies like Tesla train their models to recognize everything from pedestrians to roadblocks. Guo was ousted from Scale in 2018, reportedly after a disagreement with Wang, who still serves as CEO. She kept a roughly 5 percent stake -- an asset that's aged well. Scale AI is currently valued at $25 billion after closing a fundraising round earlier this week. "I don't really think about it much, it's a bit wild. Too bad it's all on paper haha," Guo told Forbes via text in response to her new billionaire status. Her co-founder, who owns 15 percent of Scale AI, has been the world's youngest self-made billionaire since 2022, currently boasting a net worth of $3.6 billion. While Guo insists most of her fortune exists only on paper, she hasn't exactly been living modestly. Last year, she bought a $4.2 million designer home in Los Angeles and also owns a $6.7 million apartment in Miami. At the latter, she hosted a party featuring exotic animals that reportedly irritated fellow residents, including David Beckham. In 2022, the New York Post anointed her "Miami's number one party girl." Since parting ways with Scale AI, Guo has stayed busy. She founded Backend Capital to invest in early-stage startups, backing hits like Ramp, the financial software firm now worth $13 billion. Not long after, she raised $50 million between 2022 and 2024 for her next act: Passes, a pay-for-content platform she founded and now runs as CEO. The platform attracted major names like Shaquille O'Neal and DJ Kygo, offering fans exclusive access to celebrity content. But controversy soon followed: Passes was accused of enabling underage sexual content. Prior to the allegations, the company had already banned underage creators and scrubbed all associated content. Now based full-time in Los Angeles, Guo remains focused on scaling Passes. In 2024, she made headlines again when Passes co-hosted an afterparty with Revolve featuring Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, and a handful of other A-list names.

Taylor Swift unseated as world's youngest self-made female...

Taylor Swift has been unseated as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, according to Forbes -- by a 30-year-old, hard-partying college dropout who has reaped a windfall from the artificial intelligence boom. Lucy Guo -- a self-professed workaholic who rides an electric skateboard to work when she's not being chauffeured by an assistant -- has a net worth of $1.3 billion, according to Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women released on Wednesday. Guo took Swift's title of world's youngest self-made woman billionaire in April, when it was reported that Scale AI -- the firm she co-founded with Alexandr Wang in 2016 when she was just 21 and he was 19 -- had been valued at $25 billion in a deal set to close by June 1. The tender offer has not been finalized yet, but it is expected to close at that valuation in a few weeks, a source familiar with the matter told The Post. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Guo was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she quickly picked up coding in middle school. She dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University as she clinched a $100,000 entrepreneurial scholarship bankrolled by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. She took a job in 2015 at Quora, where she met Wang, and later worked at Snapchat for a brief period as the company's first female designer. At Scale AI, Guo ran the operations and production design teams - until Wang, who took the chief executive position, reportedly fired her after the two sparred over how the company should be run. "We had a difference of opinion but I am proud of what Scale AI has accomplished," Guo told the tech news site The Information last year. Still, Guo kept most of her 5% stake in Scale AI, which is worth approximately $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. The firm labels data used by tech giants like OpenAI and Alphabet to train their chatbots. With "a swanky apartment in Miami" and a house in Los Angeles, Guo has admitted she never buys groceries or cooks, instead ordering all of her meals from Uber Eats. She says she works at least eight hours a day when on vacation and has boasted about taking two Barry's bootcamp fitness classes a day. She frequently attends techno raves. "A lot of people don't like me because, honestly, I seem like an a-hole online. I would not like me on the internet," she told The Post in 2022. "But I've made a lot of friends because I think people appreciate my savage personality." The Post previously reported on her massive collection of Pokemon paraphernalia -- including slippers, stuffed animals, artwork and a Swarovski-crystal necklace. She now runs Passes, a content creation platform that has been dubbed the family-friendly version of OnlyFans and Patreon, claiming to "make millionaires" by allowing creators to hold onto 90% of their earnings. Passes reaped $40 million last year in a Series A funding round, according to Fortune -- allowing Guo to fund her lavish party-girl lifestyle. But now Passes and Guo are facing allegations that the platform allowed child pornography in a class action suit filed in February. The bombshell suit accuses Alec Celestin, an agent at Passes, and Lani Ginoza, the site's director of talent, of knowingly allowing sexually explicit content featuring OnlyFans model Alice Rosenblum -- who was underage at the time -- to circulate on Passes. "Guo personally intervened to override Passes' strict internal safety controls tailored for creators of social media content aged between 15 and 17 years old to strip and deprive Plaintiff of any protections offered by Passes against the exploitation of a minor," the complaint alleged. Just before the suit was filed, Passes banned all underage creators and wiped the site of their content, according to Forbes. Lawyers for Guo filed a motion in April to dismiss the suit, which they slammed as a defamatory attempt to "pursue the 'deep pockets' of Passes, a successful startup, and its wealthy founder." "This lawsuit is part of an orchestrated attempt to defame Passes and Ms. Guo, and these claims have no basis in reality," Rollo Baker of Elsberg Baker & Mauriri told The Post. "Ms. Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made against them in the lawsuit, which was only filed against them after they rejected a $15 million payment demand." In between founding Scale AI and Passes, Guo started a small investment firm known as Backend Capital. Guo landed at No. 26 on Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, while Swift came in at spot 21. Swift still holds the title of world's richest female musician with a net worth of $1.6 billion, after her blowout-success international "Eras Tour" pushed her into billionaire status in October 2023. Diane Hendricks took the top spot, with a $22.3 billion net worth thanks to her company ABC Supply, one of the largest distributors of roofing, siding and windows in the country.

Taylor Swift unseated as world's youngest self-made female billionaire

Lucy Guo -- a self-professed workaholic who rides an electric skateboard to work when she's not being chauffeured by an assistant -- has a net worth of $1.3 billion, according to Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women released Wednesday. Guo took Swift's title of world's youngest self-made woman billionaire in April, when it was reported that Scale AI -- the firm she co-founded with Alexandr Wang in 2016 when she was just 21 and he was 19 -- had been valued at $25 billion in a deal set to close by June 1. The tender offer has not been finalized yet, but it is expected to close at that valuation in a few weeks, a source familiar with the matter told The Post. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Guo was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she quickly picked up coding in middle school. She dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University as she clinched a $100,000 entrepreneurial scholarship bankrolled by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. She took a job in 2015 at Quora, where she met Wang, and later worked at Snapchat for a brief period as the company's first female designer. At Scale AI, Guo ran the operations and production design teams -- until Wang, who took the chief executive position, reportedly fired her after the two sparred over how the company should be run. "We had a difference of opinion but I am proud of what Scale AI has accomplished," Guo told the tech news site the Information last year. Still, Guo kept most of her 5% stake in Scale AI, which is worth approximately $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. The firm labels data used by tech giants like OpenAI and Alphabet to train their chatbots. With "a swanky apartment in Miami" and a house in Los Angeles, Guo has admitted she never buys groceries or cooks, instead ordering all her meals from Uber Eats. She says she works at least eight hours a day when on vacation and has boasted about taking two Barry's bootcamp fitness classes a day. She frequently attends techno raves. "A lot of people don't like me because, honestly, I seem like an a****** online. I would not like me on the internet," she told The Post in 2022. "But I've made a lot of friends because I think people appreciate my savage personality." The Post previously reported on her massive collection of Pokemon paraphernalia -- including slippers, stuffed animals, artwork and a Swarovski crystal necklace. She now runs Passes, a content creation platform that has been dubbed the family-friendly version of OnlyFans, and Patreon, claiming to "make millionaires" by allowing creators to hold onto 90% of their earnings. Passes reaped $40 million last year in a Series A funding round, according to Fortune -- allowing Guo to fund her lavish party-girl lifestyle. But now Passes and Guo are facing allegations, in a class-action suit filed in February, that the platform allowed child pornography. The bombshell suit accuses Alec Celestin, the plaintiff's agent, and Lani Ginoza, the site's director of talent, of knowingly allowing sexually explicit content featuring OnlyFans model Alice Rosenblum -- who was underage at the time -- to circulate on Passes. Ginoza was not employed by Passes at the time of the alleged events, according to Passes and the site's legal representation. "Guo personally intervened to override Passes' strict internal safety controls tailored for creators of social media content aged between 15 and 17 years old to strip and deprive Plaintiff of any protections offered by Passes against the exploitation of a minor," the complaint alleged. Just before the suit was filed, Passes banned all underage creators and wiped the site of their content, according to Forbes. Lawyers for Guo filed a motion in April to dismiss the suit, which they slammed as a defamatory attempt to "pursue the 'deep pockets' of Passes, a successful startup, and its wealthy founder." "This lawsuit is part of an orchestrated attempt to defame Passes and Ms. Guo, and these claims have no basis in reality," Rollo Baker of Elsberg Baker & Maruri told The Post. "Ms. Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made against them in the lawsuit, which was only filed against them after they rejected a $15 million payment demand." In between founding Scale AI and Passes, Guo started a small investment firm known as Backend Capital. Guo landed at No. 26 on Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, while Swift came in at spot 21. Swift still holds the title of world's richest female musician with a net worth of $1.6 billion, after her blowout-success international Eras Tour pushed her into billionaire status in October 2023. Diane Hendricks took the top spot, with a $22.3 billion net worth thanks to her company ABC Supply, one of the largest distributors of roofing, siding and windows in the country.

Swiftie first, mogul second, says Lucy Guo, who dethrones Taylor Swift as world's youngest self-made woman billionaire

AI founder Lucy Guo, 30, said she is a proud fan of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift after overtaking the pop star to become the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire. In a recent interview with TMZ, Guo called Swift "the icon" and recalled how thrilled she was to meet the singer at Coachella last year. She also downplayed talks of "dethroning" Swift and declared that she is a proud Swiftie first, mogul second. As for being named the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, Guo said she is not attached to the title and looks forward to the day another woman surpasses her as that would mean more women are finding success in the startup scene. Guo was given the title in April by Forbes, which estimates her net worth to be at US$1.3 billion. Before her, Swift had held the distinction since attaining billionaire status in late 2023. The 35-year-old singer-songwriter's wealth largely stems from music royalties and concert income, including an estimated $600 million from performances and royalties and another $600 million tied to her re-recorded albums. She also owns $125 million worth of real estate investments. Guo's fortune is rooted in tech. She co-founded Scale AI with Alexandr Wang, 28, who is currently the world's youngest self-made billionaire. She has exited the company but retains nearly a 5% ownership stake. Beyond Scale AI, she has also launched several other ventures, including Passes, a startup that enables digital creators to monetize through subscriptions, livestreams, one-on-one interactions, and online shops.