AI Entrepreneur Lucy Guo Surpasses Taylor Swift as the World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire
Who is Lucy Guo?
In 2023, Taylor Swift was named the youngest self-made woman billionaire, but by 2025, Lucy Guo had surpassed her, earning the title according to Forbes. At 30, Guo is now among just six self-made female billionaires under 40 globally. A college dropout with a background in computer science, she was previously featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2018. As of now, her estimated net worth is $1.3 billion.
Lucy Guo co-founded the artificial intelligence company Scale AI in 2016 at the age of 21, alongside 19-year-old Alexandr Wang. While Wang took on the role of CEO, Guo led operations and product design. However, later that same year, the two clashed over the company’s direction, leading to Guo’s departure after being reportedly dismissed by Wang. Despite her exit, she retained a significant share in Scale AI — about 5%, which Forbes estimates to be worth nearly $1.2 billion today.
In addition to her Scale AI stake, Guo also holds equity in her second venture, Passes, which contributes to her overall net worth. Reflecting on her billionaire status, she told Forbes, “I don’t really think about it much, it’s a bit wild. Too bad it’s all on paper haha.”
Born to Chinese immigrant parents and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Guo studied computer science and human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University before dropping out to join the Thiel Fellowship — a program funded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Prior to launching Scale AI, she worked in product design roles at Quora, where she met Wang, and briefly at Snapchat.
Following her departure from Scale, Guo ventured into early-stage investing with her own venture capital firm, Backend Capital. Then, in 2022, she launched Passes, a creator platform where influencers and celebrities can engage with fans through paid chats and video interactions. Uniquely, Guo stands out as the only self-made woman billionaire under 40 who earned the majority of her fortune from a company she left years ago.
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