Lucy Guo, 30, has been named the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world by Forbes. (Passes / Lucy Guo)
FREMONT, Calif. – At age 30, Bay Area native and artificial intelligence entrepreneur Lucy Guo has now dethroned celebrity powerhouse Taylor Swift as the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, in a new Forbes review.
As of Tuesday, Forbes put her real-time net worth at $1.3 billion.
In 2016, Guo co-founded San Francisco-based Scale AI when she was only 21, along with Alexandr Wang.
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She left the company in 2018, reportedly over disagreements about its direction and operations.
By the numbers:
But she has retained a stake in Scale AI, of almost 5%, according to Forbes. Last year, the firm was valued at $13.8 billion after a round of funding that raised $1 billion.
Estimates now put the value of the privately-held company as high as $25 billion as it finalizes a potential tender offer expected to be completed by next month.
Guo would not comment on whether she planned to sell any of her stakes as part of the tender offer, according to Forbes.
Dig deeper:
Following her departure from Scale AI, Guo co-founded a venture capital firm, Backend Capital, before returning to the start-up world.
In 2022, she launched Passes, a direct-to-fan engagement platform. Similar to sites like OnlyFans and Patreon, Passes provides tools for content creators to monetize their fan base.
“Passes signed deals with celebrities including gymnast Olivia Dunne, basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal and DJ Kygo,” Forbes reported, noting the company raised $50 million from investors over two years starting in 2022.
Amid the recognition Guo has received for her business savvy and remarkable success, she’s also made recent headlines over a lawsuit accusing Passes of facilitating the distribution of child pornography and exploiting underage creators.
The company has refuted the claims, saying, “In line with its mission, Passes forbids the uploading of explicit content and actively works to identify and remove any violations of its guidelines.”
The company called the legal action a smear campaign and said, “To be clear, any claim that Passes approved or condoned the posting of explicit content from any user, particularly a minor, on its platform is categorically false and recklessly disregards the truth.”
Elite group
Forbes listed Guo as one of only six self-made women billionaires under the age of 40 worldwide.
She replaces 35-year-old Taylor Swift as the youngest in that category, a distinction that the global star and singer-songwriter has held since Forbes declared her a billionaire in 2023.
Guo was recognized in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
Bay Area roots
A native of Fremont, her parents are Chinese immigrants who were electrical engineers.
A Passes spokesperson told KTVU the company’s CEO and co-founder lived in the Bay Area for two decades and is now based in Los Angeles.
Forbes reported that Guo began coding while in middle school with her interest in computer science and her entrepreneurial prowess blossoming at an early age.
Guo attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, where she left her mark.
A spokesperson shared a photo of a touching letter Guo wrote to a high school teacher.
The letter read in part, “I know I drove you crazy sophomore year… thanks for putting up with me though. You literally changed my way of thinking toward life.”
The letter was saved by the teacher all these years, the spokesperson said.
Photo of a letter written by Lucy Guo in to her teacher at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, Calif. (Lucy Guo)
After Foothill, Guo then went on to attend college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
But in 2014 after two years in college, she dropped out to become a Thiel Fellow. The two-year program, “for young people who want to build new things,” was founded by tech investor Peter Thiel. It offers Thiel fellows a $100,000 grant and support to skip or leave college to begin new ventures.
At only 30, Guo has been described as someone who has been at the forefront of the tech, AI world, and an ambitious and driven entrepreneur, with a rebellious and unapologetic approach, unafraid to take the unconventional route.
And in an industry dominated by male leaders, Guo has gone beyond just breaking the glass ceiling. The young billionaire has reached new heights.
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 16: Lucy Guo attends as Passes presents Lucypalooza 2024 during LA Tech Week on October 16, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Passes)
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