- Many of the world’s youngest billionaires hail from the tech industry.
- Snap’s Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy are 30 and 32, respectively, and Stripe’s John and Patrick Collison are 30 and 31.
- Not every tech billionaire is young – the world’s two richest people, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, are in their 50s or 60s. And Oracle’s Larry Ellison was 49 when he reached billionaire status.
- Still, companies like Airbnb, TikTok-parent ByteDance, and social networking behemoth Facebook are run by millennials.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
It pays to be young in tech.
While there are currently plenty of over-50 and over-60 billionaires who hail from the tech world – Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates chief among them – there are also dozens of newly minted millennial billionaires. Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy (30 and 32, respectively) became billionaires in their mid-20s, and Spiegel is one of only a few self-made billionaires age 30 or younger.
Mark Zuckerberg became the world’s youngest billionaire at age 23 (though he’s since been unseated by Kylie Jenner). He’s still among one of the youngest, richest people in the world.
That’s not to say youth is a requirement in the tech world. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who’s currently worth over $58 billion, was 49 when he reached billionaire status. Elon Musk and Meg Whitman were in their 40s as well.
But these days, some of tech's biggest or most exciting companies are run by billionaires in their 20s and 30s. Thanks to Forbes' annual billionaires list, we've identified the 27 youngest billionaires in tech.
Peter Szulczewski
Age: 39
Net worth: $1.8 billion
What he does: Peter Szulczewski is the cofounder and CEO of ecommerce platform Wish.
Sachin Bansal
Age: 39
Net worth: $1.2 billion
What he does: Sachin Bansal is cofounder of Flipkart, India's biggest ecommerce site.
Joe Gebbia
Age: 39
Net worth: $3.1 billion
What he does: Joe Gebbia is cofounder and chief product officer of short-term home rental company Airbnb.
Brian Chesky
Age: 38
Net worth: $3.1 billion
What he does: Brian Chesky is cofounder and CEO of short-term home rental company Airbnb.
Evan Sharp
Age: 38
Net worth: $1 billion
What he does: Evan Sharp is cofounder and chief creative officer of inspiration and trend discovery site Pinterest.
Ben Silbermann
Age: 38
Net worth: $2.1 billion
What he does: Ben Silbermann is cofounder and CEO of inspiration and trend discovery site Pinterest.
Eduardo Saverin
Age: 38
Net worth: $14.8 billion
What he does: Eduardo Saverin cofounded Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg.
Su Hua
Age: 37 or 38
Net worth: $2.9 billion
What he does: Su Hua is the cofounder and CEO of Kuaishou, a Chinese GIF and video-sharing app.
Binny Bansal
Age: 37 or 38
Net worth: $1.1 billion
What he does: Binny Bansal is cofounder of Flipkart, India's biggest ecommerce site. He was CEO of Flipkart Group until his resignation in November 2018 after allegations of "serious personal misconduct."
Cheng Wei
Age: 37
Net worth: $1.2 billion
What he does: Cheng Wei is the founder and CEO of Chinese ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing.
Brian Armstrong
Age: 37
Net worth: $1 billion
What he does: Brian Armstrong is the cofounder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.
Daniel Ek
Age: 37
Net worth: $4.3 billion
What he does: Daniel Ek is the cofounder and CEO of music-streaming company Spotify.
Drew Houston
Age: 37
Net worth: $1.5 billion
What he does: Drew Houston is the cofounder and CEO of file-sharing service Dropbox.
Ryan Graves
Age: 37
Net worth: $1.6 billion
What he does: Ryan Graves was the first full-time employee and first CEO of Uber. He's currently the CEO of investment firm Saltwater Capital.
Nathan Blecharczyk
Age: 37
Net worth: $3.1 billion
What he does: Nathan Blecharczyk is the cofounder and chief strategy officer at short-term home rental company Airbnb.
Zhang Yiming
Age: 36
Net worth: $16.2 billion
What he does: Zhang Yiming is the chairman of ByteDance, a Chinese content company behind the short-form video app TikTok.
Bill Liu
Age: 36
Net worth: $1.7 billion
What he does: Bill Liu is the CEO and chairman of Royole, which makes flexible displays and sensors that are used in devices like foldable phones.
Kevin Systrom
Age: 36
Net worth: $1.9 billion
What he does: Kevin Systrom is the cofounder and former CEO of photo-sharing app Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012.
Mark Zuckerberg
Age: 36
Net worth: $98 billion
What he does: Mark Zuckerberg is the cofounder and CEO of social networking company Facebook.
Dustin Moskovitz
Age: 36
Net worth: $16.2 billion
What he does: Dustin Moskovitz cofounded Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg. He left Facebook to cofound the workplace management company Asana, where he is CEO.
Pavel Durov
Age: 35
Net worth: $3.4 billion
What he does: Pavel Durov is the founder of messaging app Telegram. He also created VK, the biggest social networking app in Russia.
Chris Wanstrath
Age: 35
Net worth: $2.1 billion
What he does: Chris Wanstrath is the cofounder and former CEO of GitHub, a social network for software developers that was acquired by Microsoft.
Jihan Wu
Age: 34
Net worth: $1.8 billion
What he does: Jihan Wu is the cofounder and chairman of Bitmain Technologies, the largest cryptocurrency mining company in China.
Bobby Murphy
Age: 32
Net worth: $4.6 billion
What he does: Bobby Murphy is cofounder and chief technology officer of Snap, the social media and camera company that makes Snapchat.
Patrick Collison
Age: 31
Net worth: $3.2 billion
What he does: Patrick Collison - along with his brother, John - founded payments company Stripe. He currently serves as the company's CEO.
Evan Spiegel
Age: 30
Net worth: $4.4 billion
What he does: Evan Spiegel is cofounder and CEO of Snap, the social media and camera company that makes Snapchat.
John Collison
Age: 30
Net worth: $3.2 billion
What he does: John Collison - along with his brother, Patrick - founded payments company Stripe. He currently serves as the company's president.
