The 20 youngest self-made billionaires in the world
Some of the wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs take decades to accumulate their fortunes — others strike gold very early on.A recent report from Hurun, a Shanghai firm that releases yearly rankings and research about the world's richest people, rounded up the latter group of entrepreneurs: self-made billionaires under age 35.Read on to see who made the list — and just how wealthy they are, as estimated by Hurun:
Evan Spiegel: 25
Residence: Los Angeles, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $1.8 billionAt the ripe age of 25, the Snapchat CEO is the youngest billionaire in the world after launching the popular photo-sharing app with two of his former Stanford classmates.
John Collison: 26
Residence: San Francisco, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $1 billionThe Harvard dropout cofounded Stripe, an online payment company, with his brother Patrick in 2011. The Irish-born brothers now live in San Francisco, where the company is based.
Bobby Murphy: 26
Residence: Venice, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $1.8 billionJust five years out of college, the CTO of Snapchat is one of the youngest billionaires in the world, along with his Snapchat cofounder Spiegel. The two met during their days as Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers at Stanford.
Patrick Collison: 27
Residence: San Francisco, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $1.0 billionThe Stripe cofounder and CEO dropped out of MIT to partner with his brother John and pursue an entrepreneurial path. Their start-up was most recently valued at $5 billion in October.
Mark Zuckerberg: 31
Residence: Palo Alto, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $45 billionThe Facebook cofounder and CEO became the youngest self-made billionaire in history at age 23, thanks to Facebook's IPO. Today, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla are theninth-wealthiest couple in the world and active philanthropists.
Elizabeth Holmes: 31
Residence: Palo Alto, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $4.3 billionHolmes founded healthcare-technology company Theranos as a sophomore at Stanford. Within months, she dropped out to pursue her entrepreneurial path and build her company. Today, she's America's youngest female billionaire at age 31.
Dustin Moskovitz: 31
Residence: San Francisco, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $10 billionThe Facebook cofounder was the company's first CTO. He left to launch Asana in 2008with fellow Facebooker Justin Rosenstein, but Moskovitz still holds a significant stakein the company.Photos of Wang Yue are unavailable. He operates out of Shanghai, China.Shutterstock/Sean Pavone
Wang Yue: 32
Residence: Shanghai, ChinaEstimated wealth: $1.0 billionThe CEO of Shanghai Kingnet Technologyjoined the ranks of the youngest billionaires this year. Formerly an executive at 51.com in China, Wang has turned Kingnet into a leading mobile game developer in China since becoming CEO in 2009.Cheng Wei.YouTube/World Economic Forum
Cheng Wei: 32
Residence: Beijing, ChinaEstimated wealth: $1.0 billionWei is CEO of the ride hailing service Didi Kuaidi, similar to Uber. Before founding Didi Dache, he spent eight years at e-commerce firm Alibaba.Nathan Blecharczyk.Desmond Boylan/AP
Nathan Blecharczyk: 32
Residence: San Francisco, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $3.6 billionThe Harvard graduate was working as a product manager at Microsoft when his former roommate Joe Gebbia recruited him to cofound Airbnb. As the current CTO, he led the company's recent push into Cuba.Photos of He Zhitao are unavailable. His company is based out of Hangzhou, China.Shutterstock
He Zhitao: 33
Residence: ChinaEstimated wealth: $1.2 billionThe Chinese software entrepreneur and CEO of Hangzhou Liaison Interactive Technologyjoined the young billionaires club in 2015,when the value of his shares in the company sent him from millionaire to billionaire status.Eduardo Saverin.Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Eduardo Saverin: 33
Residence: SingaporeEstimated wealth: $5.6 billionThe Facebook cofounder is no longer as involved in the company after legal disputes with his fellow cofounders, but he still holds a small stake in Facebook. The Brazilian-born entrepreneur is now an active angel investor as well as the director of 99, a Singapore-based property rental and sales website.Sachin Bansal.NDTV via YouTube
Sachin Bansal: 34
Residence: Bangalore, IndiaEstimated wealth: $1.4 billionIn 2007, Bansal teamed up with Binny Bansal — no relation, despite the same surname — to found Flipkart as an online seller of books. Today, it's India's top internet retailer, with 30 million products and 44 million registered users.Sachin and Benny Bansal.TechnoFirst
Binny Bansal: 34
Residence: Bangalore, IndiaEstimated wealth: $1.4 billionThe cofounder of Flipkart has been the chief operating officer for years, but is slated to take over as CEO. Sachin, the CEO since the early days of Flipkart, will take on the newly created role of executive chairman.Photos of Lin Qui are unavailable. He resides in Shanghai, China.Wikimedia Commons
Lin Qi: 34
Residence: Shanghai, ChinaEstimated wealth: $1.5 billionAfter two business flops, Lin Qi founded web gaming company Youzu with 10 people in 2009. He reached billionaire status in 2014 after Susino Umbrella bought his company. Today, Lin serves as chairman of Youzu.Joe Gebbia.TED2016
Joe Gebbia: 34
Residence: San Francisco, CaliforniaEstimated wealth: $3.6 billionAfter starting a handful of smaller, less profitable business and tech ventures, Gebbia struck gold when he cofounded Airbnb with Blecharczy. He currently serves as the company's chief product officer.Photos of Zhang Bangxin are unavailable. He resides in Beijing, China.Shutterstock
Zhang Bangxin: 35
Residence: Beijing, ChinaEstimated wealth: $1.3 billionThe cofounder of education services firm TAL Education has served as chairman and CEO since the company's inception. He wasnamed China's entrepreneur of the year in 2013.Scott Farquhar.Atlassian
Scott Farquhar: 35
Residence: Sydney, AustraliaEstimated wealth: $1.9 billionThe Australia native cofounded software company Atlassian with a university buddy, Mike Cannon-Brookes, in 2002. Atlassian grew at a rapid rate and pulled off a successful IPO in 2015, the fifth largest US IPO of that year.Mike Cannon-Brookes.Aundray/flickr
Mike Cannon-Brookes: 35
Residence: Sydney, AustraliaEstimated wealth: $1.9 billionCannon-Brookes and Farquhar share the role of CEO at Atlassian, which now has 15 software products and serves clients including Citigroup, NASA, Twitter, and Tesla.Frank Wang Tao.YouTube/Forbes
Frank Wang Tao: 35
Residence: ChinaEstimated wealth: $3.4 billionIn 2006, Frank Wang Tao founded Dajiang Innovation Technology (DJI) from his dorm room at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Today, DJI is the world's largest consumer drone company.