In a major shift on the global billionaire leaderboard, Lucy Guo, cofounder of Scale AI, has officially unseated pop icon Taylor Swift as the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire.
At just 30 years old, Guo’s wealth now stands at an estimated $1.25 billion, according to Forbes, largely fueled by her stake in Scale AI. The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company is reportedly finalizing a $25 billion valuation as part of an ongoing tender offer expected to close by June 1 — an 80% jump from its last funding round.
From College Dropout to AI Billionaire
Lucy Guo’s journey from college dropout to AI mogul is the epitome of modern tech success. A child of Chinese immigrants, she grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and started coding in middle school. Guo later dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University after becoming a Thiel Fellow and kick-started her tech career at Quora and Snapchat before cofounding Scale AI at age 21.
Though Lucy Guo left Scale AI in 2018 after a reported split with her cofounder Alexandr Wang, she held on to her nearly 5% stake — a move that has now cemented her billionaire status.
“I don’t really think about it much, it’s a bit wild. Too bad it’s all on paper haha,”
— Lucy Guo, via text to Forbes
A Tech Powerhouse Beyond Scale AI
Since departing from Scale, Guo hasn’t slowed down. She launched her own venture capital firm, Backend Capital, which scored early wins, including a bet on fintech unicorn Ramp.
In 2022, she shifted her focus to build Passes — a creator monetization platform akin to Patreon and OnlyFans. Passes has signed high-profile names including Shaquille O’Neal, Olivia Dunne, and DJ Kygo, raising over $50 million from marquee investors.
However, Passes recently faced legal challenges after being accused of hosting underage content — a claim the company has firmly denied. In response, Passes purged all underage creator accounts prior to the lawsuit.
The Bigger Picture: AI’s Billionaire Boom
The surge in Scale AI’s valuation has also lifted cofounder Alexandr Wang’s fortune to $3.6 billion, making him one of the youngest billionaires in the world.
Scale AI is a behind-the-scenes powerhouse in the artificial intelligence revolution, supplying labeled training data for autonomous vehicles, the U.S. military, and even OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The company’s success underscores the growing market dominance of AI infrastructure — the so-called “picks and shovels” of the AI gold rush.
Work Hard, Play Hard
Despite her massive financial success, Guo keeps her lifestyle grounded in fitness and social events. She recently celebrated completing 3,000 classes at Barry’s Bootcamp and frequently posts from music festivals like Coachella and Ultra Miami.
“Quite literally thousands of RSVPs,”
— Guo on Passes’ Coachella weekend event
Lucy Guo’s story is a classic example of tech-world persistence: hold onto your equity, bet on yourself, and stay laser-focused — even after setbacks. From startup tensions to billionaire status, she’s now proof that AI is rewriting not just industries, but the paths to personal wealth.
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