Alexandr Wang dropped out of MIT when he was 19. He then went on to co-found a company called Scale AI and become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 25.
A math genius, Wang grew up in the shadow of New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Lab which forms part of America’s nuclear weapons programme. Wang currently works closely with outfits like the Air Force, Army, GM and Flexport to unlock their data’s potential using Scale AI.
Scale AI is able to analyze satellite images faster than human analysts and to determine how much damage Russian bombs are causing in the Ukraine. This technology is currently being employed by more than 300 companies.
“Every industry is sitting on huge amounts of data. Our goal is to help them unlock the potential of the data and supercharge their businesses with AI,” said Wang.
Scale has a $325 million fund which generates an estimated $100 million in revenue at $7.3 billion. Wang has a 15 percent stake in the company which is worth $1 billion, making him the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
“Every industry is sitting on huge amounts of data. Our goal is to help them unlock the potential of the data and supercharge their businesses with AI,” said Wang.
On his decision to quit MIT at 19 he said, “I told my parents it was just going to be a thing I did for the summer. Obviously, I never went back to school.”
Scale AI is only six years old and has already signed three contracts worth $110 million, contingent on the government’s needs, to help America’s Air Force and Army employ artificial intelligence.
Wang signed up for his first national math competition when he was in 6th grade with the hope of winning a ticket to Disney World. He may not have made it to Disney World but it has been quite the magic carpet ride for this lad. By 17 he was already working on coding at Quora where he met Scale’s cofounder Lucy Guo.
He then went on to MIT to study machine learning and started Scale with Guo after his freshman year, with an investment from Y Combinator.
Wang’s parents are also highly educated, both physicists who worked on weapons projects for the military.
The next youngest self made billionaire in the world is Pedro Fransechi, the 25-year-old Brazilian co-founder of credit card company Brex.