Meet Alexandr Wang: Next Elon Musk? World's Youngest Billionaire & A College Dropout

At the tender age of 25, armed with an unyielding determination and a visionary mind, he became a billionaire. Unfettered by the confines of traditional education, he immersed himself in the world of technology harnessing the power of innovation. Today, as a billionaire, he is being called as the next Elon Musk. This serves as an inspiration to countless aspiring entrepreneurs, proving that the path to extraordinary achievements can arise from unconventional beginnings.

Alexandr Wang was a maths whiz as a kid, who was fond of participating in maths and coding competitions. At 25 (2022), he was the world’s youngest self-made billionaire and his company uses artificial intelligence (AI), which has even analysed the damage caused in Ukraine war.

According to a 2022 report by Forbes, Scale AI, Wang’s San Francisco–based company, already had three contracts worth $110 million to help America’s Air Force and Army employ AI.

Journey

He had started the company at 19 and after a $325 million funding round, it valued Scale AI at $7.3 billion. Wang’s estimated stake of 15% is worth about $1 billion, making him the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, the report said.

Reportedly, Scale AI’s technology works much faster than human analysts to examine satellite images and is useful not just for the military.

According to Forbes, over 300 companies, like Flexport and General Motors, use Scale to help retrieve information from raw data such as, say, raw footage from self-driving cars or millions of documents.

“Every industry is sitting on huge amounts of data,” Wang had told Forbes. “Our goal is to help them unlock the potential of the data and supercharge their businesses with AI.”

Background

Wang’s parents, who were physicists, were engaged in weapons projects for the US military. While attending school, Wang developed an interest in coding at Quora, where he crossed paths with Lucy Guo. This encounter eventually led to their joint establishment of Scale AI.

Wang embarked on his pursuit of a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following the completion of his first year at the esteemed university, he teamed up with Guo during the summer to establish Scale. The business endeavour was initiated by entrepreneurial partners, securing funding from the US start-up incubator Y Combinator.

“I told my parents it was just going to be a thing I did for the summer,” Wang said. “Obviously, I never went back to school.”

According to Forbes, Wang’s net worth has risen to US$1 billion due to his 1% ownership stake in the company, which is quite impressive for a 26-year-old. He was ranked 2,534th on Forbes’ list of world billionaires.