This AI founder has unseated Taylor Swift as the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire

In the fast-paced world of tech billionaires, there’s a new record holder you might not have heard of yet. Lucy Guo, the 30-year-old co-founder of Scale AI, has just claimed the title of the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, overtaking pop superstar Taylor Swift.

From college dropout to billionaire

Guo’s path to billions wasn’t conventional. A computer science dropout from Carnegie Mellon, she co-founded Scale AI in 2016 when she was just 21 years old alongside Alexander Wang, who was only 19 at the time. The company, which specializes in labeling data for artificial intelligence systems, has become a crucial player in the AI infrastructure space.

What makes Guo’s story particularly interesting is that she’s no longer even at the company that made her rich. After a disagreement with Wang in 2018, she left Scale AI but wisely held onto most of her stake – about 5% of the company. That decision has now paid off spectacularly.

A $25 billion valuation

Scale AI is currently completing a tender offer that values the company at a staggering $25 billion – an 80% jump from its $13.8 billion valuation just last year. This puts Guo’s stake at nearly $1.2 billion, with her total fortune estimated at $1.25 billion when including her other assets.

Her reaction to becoming a billionaire? Refreshingly understated: “I don’t really think about it much. It’s a bit wild. Too bad it’s all on paper, haha.”

What does Scale AI actually do?

Scale AI does what Wang has described as the “picks and shovels work” of artificial intelligence – labeling the