In January 2012, Forbes launched the inaugural 30 Under 30 list to highlight the founders and leaders building the next big thing. Every year since, the iconic franchise has celebrated the top young talent in 20 different industries who are shaping the future of business and culture.

Countless listers have since gone on to achieve stunning success in business, science, technology and show biz. But just 46 alumni have been so successful that they have leapt into the rarified ranks of the World’s Billionaires. Over the last 15 years the brightest of these young global stars have made their 10-figure fortunes in everything from social media and fintech to retail and, in Taylor Swift’s case, worldwide stardom. But nothing has created as much wealth at such an unprecedented rate as today’s AI fervor, which has minted new billionaires at an unprecedented rate, and is a big reason why a stunning 19 of these super-rich alums have become billionaires since the start of the year.

Among the breakout stars are eight alumni who all became billionaires in the past year and are still under 30 years old. That includes the four cofounders of AnySphere, the parent company behind AI coding tool cursor: Sualeh Asif, Aman Sanger and Michael Truell, all age 25, and Arvid Lunnemark, 26; Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan, of Polymarket, who recently landed a big investment from the global stock exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange; and the three 22-year-old cofounders of AI recruiting unicorn Mercor — Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha — who raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation this Fall, making them the world’s youngest billionaires ever. (Mark Zuckerberg previously held that title when he debuted on the billionaire ranks at 23. He, too, appeared on Under 30 but was already a billionaire by then.)

Another notable deal involving U30 alums this year: Meta invested $14.3 billion into 28-year-old AI powerhouse Alexandr Wang’s ScaleAI in June in exchange for a 49% stake. The acquisition boosted Wang’s fortune by more than 50% to a recent $3.2 billion and pushed up the fortune of his cofounder Lucy Guo, who appeared with Wang on the 2018 Under 30 list, to $1.4 billion; she is now the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.

Twelve of the U30 billionaire alums are building AI-first companies, but nearly all 46 of them are using AI in some way to evolve their businesses—think Ankur Jain’s Bilt, which has implemented AI agents to customer service and analyze customer data, or Melanie Perkins’ Canva, which now offers options to AI-generate images or translate text to more than 100 languages.

Only three of the 46 Under 30 billionaires come from industries outside of tech. That includes one athlete (LeBron James) and two entertainers (Taylor Swift and Rihanna). Famous for smash hits like “Diamonds” and “Umbrella,” Rihanna became a billionaire in 2021 thanks largely to her cosmetics company Fenty Beauty. She’s worth $1 billion today. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, crossed the billion-dollar threshold solely due to her music and performances, and is now worth $1.6 billion.

The richest Under 30 alum of all is ByteDance cofounder Zhang Yiming, who made the Under 30 China list in 2013, four years before the company launched TikTok. The video company’s virality has resulted in a $63.9 billion fortune for Zhang, making him the 26th-richest person in the world.

Zhang is one of at least 14 Under 30s-turned-billionaires who hail from outside the U.S., including from China, India, Ireland and France. That also includes Rihanna, who is from Barbados, and Spotify’s Daniel Ek,........

© Forbes