Top 10 Youngest Billionaires in the World

Katharina Gamlemshaug Andresen, born May 21, 1995, is a Norwegian heiress and the third youngest billionaire in the world (1.1 billion USD) according to Forbes' 2020 report. She is the daughter of Johan H. Andresen Jr., owner of Ferd AS, who in 2007 transferred 42.2% of his shares to Katharina and her sister, Alexandra. Katharina is the granddaughter of Johan H. Andresen, Johan Henrik Andresen, Anton Klaveness, and Nicolai Andresen. In November 2017, Andresen was fined 250,000kr (27,000 USD) for drunk driving, with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, along with a 13-month suspension of her driving license.

Katharina Andresen (25) and Alexandra Andresen (24) are currently among the most famous billionaire sisters. They hold the 3rd and 4th positions in the top 10 youngest billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. Both sisters inherited 42% of Ferd, a Bærum-based investment company with annual revenues of around 2 billion USD. They made their debut on the billionaire list in 2016. Their father, Johan Andresen, still manages the Ferd business and controls 70% of the voting rights in the company, which invests in real estate and securities in Northern Europe. Besides their stakes in Ferd, the sisters have separate careers of their own.

Austin Russell is an American entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Luminar Technologies, a company specializing in lidar and sensor technology, primarily used in autonomous vehicles. Luminar went public in December 2020, making him the world's youngest self-made billionaire. Despite Luminar's stock experiencing a decline since its IPO, Russell earned $220 million by selling 10.5 million shares at $21 each, six months after the listing. A child prodigy, Russell memorized the periodic table of elements by age two and patented his first invention at 13 – a groundwater recycling system to reuse water from sprinklers.

He spent his later teen years at the University of California, Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute before enrolling at Stanford University. However, he claims to have gained most of his knowledge through YouTube and Wikipedia. In 2012, while at Stanford, Russell was awarded a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, which led him to start Luminar and drop out of college. On January 1, 2022, Russell donated $4 million to Team Seas, helping the fundraising campaign reach its $30 million goal.

Gustav Magnar Witzoe, born February 8, 1993, is a Norwegian billionaire and a major shareholder in the salmon farming company Salmar ASA. He is one of the youngest billionaires in the world. Raised in Frøya, Trøndelag, Gustav is the son of Gustav and Oddny Witzøe. His father founded SalMar, one of the largest producers of farmed salmon globally, which also holds a significant stake in Scottish Sea Farms, the second-largest salmon farm in the UK.

At 19, Gustav Magnar Witzoe spent two weeks in prison after being caught driving at 180 km/h in a 60 km/h zone and was also accused of evading a large inheritance tax bill. However, he quickly paid the fine. Witzoe became involved in the family business and worked as a milker at SalMar’s fish farms in Frøya. As of 2021, his net worth is $4.3 billion. Witzoe is also a tech startup entrepreneur and real estate investor. He previously worked for MGM Property and has invested in companies such as Gopi and Keybutler.

Achieving the title of billionaire is no small feat, and only a select few manage to amass a ten-figure fortune (USD) before turning 30. Some of these individuals are self-made billionaires who earned their wealth through startup companies, primarily in the tech sector, while others inherited significant fortunes. Life is not about winning prizes, competitions, or accolades, but rather about the genuine efforts they put in.

Andy Fang, born in 1992, is a Chinese-American technology entrepreneur and billionaire. He is best known as a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of DoorDash, a company he started with Stanley Tang, Tony Xu, and Evan Moore in 2013. DoorDash went public in December 2020, which led to Fang’s net worth being estimated at around $2.2 billion by December 2020.

The world’s billionaires list is an annual ranking of the wealthiest individuals based on their net worth, compiled and published by the American business magazine Forbes each March. The list was first introduced in March 1987. The net worth of each person on the list is estimated and cited in US dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for liabilities and other factors. Royals and dictators whose wealth derives from their positions are excluded from the list.

Stanley Tang, born in 1992, is a Hong Kong-born technology entrepreneur and billionaire. He is best known as the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of DoorDash, a company he started alongside Tony Xu, Andy Fang, and Evan Moore in 2013. DoorDash went public in December 2020, boosting Tang’s estimated net worth to around $2.2 billion by the same year. Tang holds a degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. He grew up in Hong Kong and now resides in San Francisco, California.

Samuel Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, born on March 6, 1992, is an American entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. He also manages assets through Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm he founded in October 2017. In 2021, Bankman-Fried was ranked 32nd on the Forbes 400 list with a net worth of $22.5 billion. Born in 1992 at Stanford University, he is the son of Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, both law professors at the Stanford Law School. At around 14, his mother noticed his natural inclination toward utilitarianism. He later attended Mathcamp in Canada/USA, a summer program for talented high school students in mathematics. From 2010 to 2014, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he lived in the Epsilon Theta co-op and wrote blogs on utilitarianism, baseball, and politics. He graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in math in 2014.

In 2013, Bankman-Fried joined Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm dealing in international ETFs. Starting as an intern, he returned full-time after graduation. In September 2017, he left Jane Street and moved to Berkeley, working briefly at the Effective Altruism Center as the development director from October to November 2017. That same year, he founded Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm where he owns about 90% of the shares. In January 2018, Bankman-Fried initiated arbitrage trading, making up to $25 million a day, capitalizing on the higher bitcoin prices in Japan compared to the U.S. After attending a cryptocurrency conference in Macau in late 2018 and being inspired by the Bitcoin Cash fork, he moved to Hong Kong. He founded FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, in April 2019, which launched the following month. On December 8, 2021, Bankman-Fried testified before the Financial Services Committee about cryptocurrency industry regulation.

Jonathan Kwok, 28 years old, is the son of real estate mogul Walter Kwok and currently serves as the director of Empire Group Holdings, a real estate company. Walter Kwok founded Empire Group Holdings after being ousted from his role as chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), the largest real estate conglomerate in Hong Kong. Despite his removal, Walter retained a stake in SHKP, which was passed down to his two sons, Jonathan and Geofrey Kwok. The brothers also inherited shares from their grandmother, Kwong Siu-hing. Jonathan Kwok's net worth is estimated at $2 billion. His father passed away in 2018 at the age of 68, following his dismissal from SHKP in 2008 after a dispute with his brothers Thomas and Raymond.

After his father's death, Jonathan Kwok and his brother took over Empire Group Holdings, the company their father had built after his departure from SHKP. Empire Group Holdings is a private real estate investment and development firm based in Hong Kong. Since 2010, the group has invested more than HKD 20 billion in real estate projects worldwide. The brothers inherited their father's shares in SHKP and also benefit from 1/3 of the five major family trusts held by their grandmother. Jonathan Kwok is recognized as one of the youngest billionaires in Asia according to Forbes.

At just 18 years old, Kevin David Lehmann inherited 50% of the pharmaceutical empire dm-drogerie markt from his father, making him the youngest billionaire in the world according to Forbes. With a net worth of $3.3 billion, he is ranked 35th in the global billionaire list. dm-drogerie markt, founded in 1973, is Germany's leading drugstore chain, operating over 3,400 stores nationwide with more than 41,000 employees. The company generates around $12 billion in annual revenue. In 1974, Kevin's father, Guenther Lehmann, invested in dm-drogerie markt while managing the family-owned grocery chain Pfannkuch. By 2017, Guenther Lehmann held a 50% stake in the company.

In fact, Guenther transferred his entire stake in dm-drogerie markt to his son at the age of 14 through a trust fund. When Kevin turned 18 in September 2020, he officially inherited this vast fortune. Despite their wealth, both father and son are not involved in the company’s operations and keep a very low profile, rarely appearing in the media. Kevin does not maintain a presence on major social media platforms, and searches for his name online yield minimal results. After Kevin, the second youngest billionaire in the world is Wang Zelong, a 24-year-old from China, whose wealth comes from shares in titanium dioxide manufacturing companies CNNC Hua Yuan Titanium Dioxide and Lomon Billions Group. Following them are Norwegian sisters Alexandra and Katharina Andresen, aged 24 and 25, who each hold $1.4 billion from their family's investment empire, Ferd.

Wang Zelong was raised in a family deeply involved in the chemical industry. His father, Wang Deliang, established the family’s business and instilled in him an appreciation for the lucrative opportunities within this sector. Growing up in a nurturing environment, Wang Zelong, not yet 25, took control of a publicly listed company worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In December 2019, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide announced that Wang Zelong had acquired 431 million shares from the company’s original controlling shareholder, Li Jianfeng, for 1.636 billion RMB, giving him a 27.05% stake. Following this acquisition, Wang Zelong became the effective controller of the company. The media widely covered the story, with headlines such as “The 9X entrepreneur takes control of an A-share listed company” and “23-year-old with a net worth of $3 billion,” praising his business acumen.

China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide also revealed plans for a massive investment totaling 12.1 billion RMB, which will be used to build a factory with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of raw materials, 300,000 tons of finished products, 500,000 tons of monoammonium phosphate, and 500,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate. The first phase of the project is projected to cost around 5.5 billion RMB and is expected to start operations by early next year. This large-scale investment project marks Wang Zelong’s leadership role at CNNC Titanium Dioxide. The market responded positively to the company's upgrade and transformation, with its stock price rising continuously to 11.34 RMB per share, more than doubling in value. As a result, Wang Zelong’s wealth surged to $1.5 billion, securing him a spot on Forbes' global billionaire list.

Born on July 23, 1996, Alexandra Gamlemshaug Andresen is a Norwegian heiress who became the world's youngest billionaire at just 19 years old in 2016. She held this title for three consecutive years, according to Forbes. As of 2020, Andresen is the second youngest billionaire globally, with a net worth estimated at around $1.1 billion. She is the daughter of Norwegian industrialist Johan H. Andresen Jr., the owner of Ferd AS. In 2007, her father transferred a 42.2% share of the family business to both Alexandra and her younger sister Katharina (though Johan has made it clear that he would not pressure his daughters to join the family business if they didn’t want to). Alexandra is also the granddaughter of Johan H. Andresen and the niece of Johan Henrik Andresen and Anton Klaveness. A skilled equestrian, Andresen has won multiple awards and worked as a model for the equestrian clothing brand KingsLand.

In a 2014 interview, the young billionaire shared a personal insight that caught public attention: "I’ve always been very good at saving money. I save from my weekly allowance to the money I earn myself. This gives me the freedom to buy whatever I want without having to ask my parents." Rather than collecting expensive supercars, Alexandra drives an old car she purchased with her savings. Despite being the daughter of one of Norway’s most successful businessmen, Alexandra isn’t particularly interested in business; instead, she has a deep passion for horse riding, and she’s a professional equestrian athlete. Her Instagram feed reflects this, filled not with luxury cars, high-end fashion, or lavish parties, but with horses and her beloved pets. Alexandra told Eurodressage, "Riding horses is what I want to do for the rest of my life."