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Lucy Guo, a tech entrepreneur and investor, has officially become the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire at the age of 30, surpassing Taylor Swift. This achievement follows a dramatic rise in the valuation of Scale AI, the artificial intelligence startup she co-founded in 2016. The company is now valued at $25 billion, up from $13.8 billion just a year ago, largely due to an upcoming tender offer expected to close by June 1. This deal allows early investors and employees to sell part of their shares, and Guo’s retained equity from her time at Scale AI played a key role in elevating her net worth past the billion-dollar mark, according to Forbes.

Born to Chinese immigrant parents, Lucy Guo is a first-generation Chinese-American who left Carnegie Mellon University to join the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 grant program that supports young entrepreneurs willing to drop out of college and pursue ambitious ventures. Her early career saw her working at Quora and Snapchat, where she focused on product design and engineering. These experiences laid the groundwork for her co-founding Scale AI with Alexandr Wang, who now serves as the company’s CEO.

Scale AI has emerged as one of the most influential companies in the AI infrastructure space, providing data labeling services to some of the world’s leading tech firms and government agencies. Guo, however, moved on from the company in its early stages to pursue new entrepreneurial paths. She launched Backend Capital, a venture capital firm focused on supporting underrepresented and technically talented startup founders.

In addition to her investment work, Guo also founded Passes, a creator-focused platform that helps digital influencers monetize their content through subscriptions. Passes has raised $50 million in funding and is currently valued at $150 million. Under her leadership, the company is gaining traction in the creator economy, which continues to grow rapidly alongside social media and digital entertainment, as noted by Business Insider.

Guo’s career trajectory is often compared to that of Indian entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO. Both share the distinction of dropping out of traditional education paths to build companies that would go on to become global successes. While OYO is now valued at over $4 billion, Guo’s ventures, particularly Scale AI and Passes, have positioned her at the forefront of both the AI and content creation industries, according to The Economic Times.

Unlike many others in the billionaire ranks, Guo’s wealth comes entirely from the tech sector rather than entertainment or inherited fortune. Taylor Swift, who previously held the title of the youngest self-made female billionaire, built her wealth primarily through music and entertainment. Guo’s rise underscores a shift in how generational wealth is being created—through coding, data, and innovation rather than traditional celebrity status.

Lucy Guo’s story represents the new face of tech entrepreneurship: ambitious, self-taught, and relentlessly innovative. As she continues to build and invest in cutting-edge ventures, she’s not just changing industries—she’s setting a new standard for what’s possible in tech.

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Lucy Guo

• Age: 30
• Net Worth: $1.25 billion
• Country: United States
• Source of Wealth: AI (Co-founder of Scale AI, Passes)

Taylor Swift

• Age: 35
• Net Worth: $1.6 billion
• Country: United States
• Source of Wealth: Music, Touring, Investments

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