There are more Gen-Z billionaires than ever before.
illustration by Neil Jamieson for Forbes
Huge funding rounds, AI mania and good old fashioned inheritance have made it just a little bit easier to become a super-young billionaire over the past year. There are a record 35 people who managed to hit ten digits before age 30 on Forbes’ latest World’s Billionaires list. That’s only 1% of the planet’s 3,428 billionaires—but up 0.4% from 2025. They got wealthy in everything from drugstores and plumbing supplies to prediction markets and AI vibe coding. While most were handed their fortunes, a record 12 are self-made.
The world’s youngest self-made billionaires are newcomers to the list: Surya Midha, Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath, the trio behind AI recruiting startup Mercor, who are each 22 years old and worth $2.2 billion—or $100 million for every year they’ve been alive. “It’s definitely crazy,” Foody told Forbes last year. “It feels very surreal. Obviously beyond our wildest imaginations.” Midha, who is a couple months younger than his cofounders, is now the youngest self-made billionaire of all. He takes the title from ScaleAI’s Alexandr Wang on last year’s ranking. Midha and his cofounders and fellow Thiel Fellows are also the youngest self-made billionaires ever to make Forbes’ Billionaires list, beating out Mark Zuckerberg, who debuted at age 23 two decades ago.
There’s also a new youngest self-made woman billionaire: Luana Lopes Lara, a 29-year-old former ballerina and MIT grad who cofounded prediction market firm Kalshi. The Brazilian native unseated 31-year-old Scale AI cofounder Lucy Guo, who had taken the title from Taylor Swift in April. Lopes Lara’s cofounder Tarek Mansour also ranks among the 17 new under-30 billionaires this year, 11 (new) of whom are self-made. Many of them made their fortunes in AI, including Sweden’s Fabian Hedin, 26, who cofounded AI coding startup Lovable, and Cursor founders Michael Truell (25), Aman Sanger (25) and Arvid Lunnemark (who is 26 and no longer at the AI coding startup).
The world’s new youngest billionaire of all is Amelie Voigt Trejes, whose grandfather Werner Ricardo Voigt (d. 2016) cofounded the Brazilian industrial machinery giant WEG in 1961. At 20 years old, Amelie is younger than her twin brothers Pedro and Felipe Voigt Trejes—and seven weeks younger than Johannes von Baumbach, a German pharma heir, who is now second youngest. Other notable young billionaires who inherited their fortunes include the youngest heir to the Italian eyeglasses empire EssilorLuxottica Clemente Del Vecchio (21) and South Korean Kim Jung-youn (22), who, along with her older sister, inherited a fortune in online gaming.
Altogether 8 of the 35 billionaires who are under 30 are U.S. citizens, and an additional 3, including Lopes Lara, now live in the U.S. Another 13 live in Europe and 6 in Asia. All of the Americans are self-made, while nearly all of the Europeans (except for Hedin and Lunnemark) inherited their fortunes.
In all, these 35 super-rich super-youngsters are worth $92.4 billion, down from the $152.3 billion combined wealth of the 35 youngest members of last year’s list (which included then 32-year-old Red Bull heir Mark Mateschitz, then worth $40.6 billion, and then 34-year-old Stripe cofounder John Collison, then worth $10.1 billion).
FULL LIST
Here are the 35 under-30 billionaires on the 2026 World’s Billionaires list, listed from oldest to youngest.
NET WORTHS ARE AS OF MARCH 1, 2026
*SELF-MADE FORTUNES ARE MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK
Tarek Mansour*
Age: 29 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: Prediction markets | Net worth: $1.3 billion
Mansour is the cofounder and CEO of prediction markets firm Kalshi, which allows users to bet on everything from sports game results to political elections to entertainment awards. Mansour, who grew up in Lebanon and taught himself English while studying for the SATs, met his cofounder Lopes Lara at MIT. The pair both majored in computer science and were part of the same friend group of international students. Kalshi reached a $11 billion valuation in December 2025 following a $1 billion funding round. He owns an estimated 12% stake.
Luana Lopes Lara*
Age: 29 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth: Prediction Markets | Net worth: $1.3 billion
Lopes Lara is the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire. Although most of her time growing up was spent training at an elite ballet school, she found academic success winning gold at the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad and bronze at the Santa Catarina Mathematics Olympiad. After graduating high school, she performed as a professional ballerina in Austria for nine months before leaving to attend MIT. The cofounder and COO of Kalshi, she also owns an estimated 12% of the company.
Wang Zelong
Age: 29 | Citizenship: China | Source of wealth: Chemicals | Net worth: $1.2 billion
Wang’s fortune comes from a stake in Shenzhen-listed traded company CNNC Hua Yuan Titanium Dioxide—a chemical used to create white pigment for things like paint and paper. Wang became a billionaire in 2021 while still at university, making him one of Asia’s youngest.
Alexandra Andresen
Age: 29 | Citizenship: Norway | Source of wealth: Investments | Net worth: $2.5 billion
Andresen’s fortune stems from the 150-year-old cigarette empire her father sold in 2005. After the sale, the family refocused on its investment firm Ferd, which has portfolios in real estate, finance and a variety of private Nordic companies. Andresen and her 30-year-old sister sit on the board. She is a three-time junior Norwegian champion in dressage horse riding but no longer competes due to spinal health problems. She’s still heavily involved with horses and both owns and runs the Oslo horse-breeding stable Andresen Dressage.
Firoz Mistry
Age: 29 | Citizenship: Ireland | Source of wealth: Diversified | Net worth: $3.1 billion
Mistry and his brother Zahan, 27, each inherited 4.6% stakes in the $180 billion (revenue) Mumbai-based multinational conglomerate Tata Sons after their father died in a car accident in 2022. The group, which owns 30 companies spanning across six continents and over 100 countries and selling everything from cars to jewelry, dates back to 1868.
Alexandr Wang*
Age: 29 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI | Net worth: $3.2 billion
Wang is the founder of AI data labeling giant Scale AI. In June, Facebook parent company Meta bought 49% of Scale for around $29 billion, and Wang became Meta’s chief AI officer. He was the world’s youngest self-made billionaire until October 2025, when he was overtaken by Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan.
Dora Voigt de Assis
Age: 28 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth: Industrial machinery | Net worth: $1.4 billion
She and her sister Livia, 21, own 3.1% of the Brazilian electrical motor producer WEG, which their late grandfather Werner Ricardo Voigt cofounded in 1961. The siblings have no roles at the company, which produces more than 21 million electric motors every year and exports them to more than 135 countries.
Maximilian von Baumbach
Age: 28 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of wealth: Pharma | Net worth: $6.6 billion
Maximilian is the oldest of his four siblings on this list of under-30s. The von Baumbachs are heirs to the German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, founded in 1885.
Shayne Coplan*
Age: 27 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: Prediction markets | Net worth: $1 billion
Coplan is the founder and CEO of Polymarket, one of the world’s largest prediction markets. In October, billionaire Jeff Sprecher’s global stock exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange invested $2 billion in Polymarket at a $9 billion valuation–a deal that made Coplan the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at the time, due to his estimated 11% stake in Polymarket. (He was overtaken by Mercor’s Surya Midha less than three weeks later.)
Carl-Anton Kunz
Age: 27 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of wealth: Plumbing & heating supplies | Net worth: $1.1 billion
Kunz is a shareholder of Cordes & Graefe, the parent company of GC Group, a German wholesaler that covers a wide range of products for plumbing and HVAC systems. He inherited a stake in the company from his grandfather Uwe Hollweg, who was the longtime leader of the business.
Zahan Mistry
Age: 27 | Citizenship: Ireland | Source of wealth: Diversified | Net worth: $3.1 billion
Mistry’s father’s death left him and his brother Firoz with 4.6% stakes in Tata Sons. His uncle Shapoor Mistry is chairman of the family’s Mumbai construction giant, Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
Fabian Hedin*
Age: 26 | Citizenship: Sweden | Source of Wealth: AI coding | Net worth: $1.6 billion
Hedin is cofounder of Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable, which was valued at $6.6 billion by private investors in December. He and his cofounder, CEO Anton Osika, each own an estimated 24% of the company that was launched in late 2024.
Abbas Sajwani
Age: 26 | Citizenship: United Arab Emirates | Source of wealth: Real estate | Net worth: $1.9 billion
The son of billionaire developer Hussain Sajwani, Abbas is the founder and owner of AHS Properties, a Dubai-based luxury real estate developer he founded in 2021. He sold villas in Dubai’s upscale Emirates Hills and Palm Jumeirah the next year and bought land along the Dubai Water Canal for luxury residential towers, which now make up most of the business.
Katharina von Baumbach
Age: 26 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of Wealth: Pharma | Net worth: $6.6 billion
One of four siblings and the only woman who inherited the German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim fortune.
Arvid Lunnemark*
Age: 26 | Citizenship: Sweden | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $1.3 billion
Lunnemark cofounded Cursor, the maker of a popular AI code editing tool, which reached a $29.3 billion valuation in November, with three friends from MIT – all of whom are in their 20s and now billionaires. Lunnemark left the company in October to found his own startup focused on developing systems for safer AI.
Sualeh Asif*
Age: 26 | Citizenship: Pakistan | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $1.3 billion
The Cursor cofounder and CTO is the only billionaire this year from Pakistan, originally from Karachi. He represented the country in the International Math Olympiad from 2016 to 2018., and completed his A-level exams at a private college in Pakistan before heading to MIT on a scholarship.
Yoni Nahmad
Age: 25 | Citizenship: Israel | Source of wealth: Art | Net worth: $1.3 billion
Yoni is the son of the late Israeli billionaire Ezra Nahmad, who along with his brother, was a large international art dealer. At the time of Ezra’s death in 2023, he and his brother’s art inventory was worth almost $7 billion. Ezra’s assets were split between Yoni and his two other sons, and includes works by more than 30 blue chip artists, from Monet and Matisse to Renoir and Rothko.
Aman Sanger*
Age: 25 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $1.3 billion
Before starting Cursor, Sanger founded an AI consultancy firm in between stints as an intern at hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and Google. He started coding when he was 14 and was an avid squash player at MIT, where he met his cofounders.
Michael Truell*
Age: 25 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $1.3 billion
One of the four MIT friends and Cursor cofounders, he went to high school with Sanger at New York City’s elite private school, Horace Mann School. Before starting Cursor, Truell was an intern for Google and quant hedge fund Two Sigma.
Maxim Tebar
Age: 25 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of wealth: Chainsaws | Net worth: $1.2 billion
The majority of Tebar’s fortune comes from inheriting a stake in Stihl, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chainsaws and other handheld power equipment. He is a fourth-generation heir to the family fortune, founded by his great-grandfather Andreas Stihl, who built the first two-person electric chainsaw, in 1926.
Remi Dassault
Age: 24 | Citizenship: France | Source of wealth: Diversified | Net worth: $2.4 billion
Dassault’s great-grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who invented a propeller used by the French Air Service in World War I, and founded the company that would go on to become the aerospace giant Dassault Aviation. Remi inherited from his father (d. 2021) an estimated 4.1% stake in that business and some 2.5% of software firm Dassault Systèmes.
Franz von Baumbach
Age: 24 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of wealth: Pharma | Net Worth: $6.6 billion
Another heir to the Ingelheim-based German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim.
Luca Del Vecchio
Age: 24 | Citizenship: Italy | Source of wealth: Eyeglasses | Net worth: $6.8 billion
He and younger brother Clemente are the richest of the under-30s, thanks mostly to their 12.5% stakes in eyeglasses behemoth EssilorLuxottica, founded by their late father Leonardo Del Vecchio (d. 2022).
Kim Jung-min
Age: 24 | Citizenship: South Korea | Source of wealth: Online gaming | Net worth: $1.7 billion
She and her sister Jung-youn inherited approximately 9% stakes in Nexon, a South Korean-Japanese online gaming company, after the 2022 death of their father, company founder Kim Jung-ju. Nexon was a pioneer of the free-to-play gaming model and is also an industry leader of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs.
Felipe Voigt Trejes
Age: 23 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth: Industrial machinery | Net worth: $1.1 billion
Along with his twin brother and younger sister Pedro and Amelie, Felipe is a major shareholder of WEG, the largest manufacturer of electrical motors in Latin America.
Pedro Voigt Trejes
Age: 23 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth | Industrial machinery | Net worth: $1.1 billion
Pedro is a major shareholder of WEG, along with his twin brother Felipe and sister Amelie.
Kevin David Lehmann
Age: 23 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of wealth: Drugstores | Net worth: $4.9 billion
Lehmann inherited his fortune after his father quietly passed him a 50% stake in dm-drogerie markt, Germany’s leading drugstore chain, in 2017, when Lehmann was only 14. His dad first invested in the brand in 1974, shortly after it was founded in 1973.
Adarsh Hiremath
Age: 22 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $2.2 billion
Hiremath cofounded Mercor, a recruiting startup that helps Silicon Valley’s biggest AI labs train their models, in 2023 with two Bay Area high school friends who competed together on their debate team.
Brendan Foody
Age: 22 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $2.2 billion
The CEO of Mercor, Foody and his two cofounders were formerly Thiel Fellows. In 2023, shortly after founding Mercor, Foody dropped out of Georgetown University. He had previously founded two other startups, both focused on software development.
Surya Midha
Age: 22 | Citizenship: United States | Source of wealth: AI software | Net worth: $2.2 billion
The youngest self-made billionaire by two months, he and his two cofounders each own an estimated 22% stake in the company. Born to Indian immigrant parents, Midha was born in California’s Bay Area and was a national debate champion in high school.
Kim Jung-youn
Age: 22 | Citizenship | South Korea | Source of Wealth: Online gaming | Net worth: $1.7 billion
Younger daughter of Nexon’s founder Kim Jung-ju (d. 2022), Kim owns approximately 9% of the South Korean-Japanese online gaming company, which offers gamers over 80 live games including hits like MapleStory, KartRider and Dungeon & Fighter.
Clemente Del Vecchio
Age: 21 | Citizenship: Italy | Source of wealth: Eyeglasses | Net worth: $6.8 billion
Like his brother Luca, he owes his wealth to his 12.5% ownership of the holding company Delfin, which has a stake in EssilorLuxottica, the eyeglass company behind shade offerers like Ray-Ban and Persol.
Lívia Voigt de Assis
Age: 21 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth: Industrial machinery | Net worth: $1.4 billion
An heir of WEG cofounder Werner Ricardo Voigt, she owns a 3.1% stake in the company.
Johannes von Baumbach
Age: 20 | Citizenship: Germany | Source of Wealth: Healthcare | Net Worth: $6.6 billion
He is the youngest heir to German pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim. The drugmaker has been led by a family member—Johannes’ uncle, Hubertus von Baumbach—since 2015. Johannes skis competitively in Austria.
Amelie Voigt Trejes
Age: 20 | Citizenship: Brazil | Source of wealth: Industrial machinery | Net worth: $1.1 billion
The youngest billionaire in the world, she owns 2% of WEG, cofounded by her late grandfather.
This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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