Lucy Guo, co-founder of tech firm Scale AI, has quietly overtaken pop sensation Taylor Swift to become the youngest self-made woman billionaire, according to Forbes. At just 30 years old, Guo’s fortune soared following a major development at Scale AI, the company Lucy Guo co-founded in 2016.
Scale AI, which specializes in labeling data to train artificial intelligence systems, is approaching the completion of a tender offer that has boosted the company’s valuation to an estimated $25 billion—an 80% surge from its $13.8 billion valuation in May last year. The firm’s clientele includes heavyweights such as the U.S. government and OpenAI.
Guo’s rise is a quintessential Silicon Valley success story. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area by Chinese immigrant parents, Guo began coding during her middle school years. She attended Carnegie Mellon University but dropped out after earning a Thiel Fellowship—a prestigious grant backed by billionaire Peter Thiel—to launch her entrepreneurial career. Before starting Scale AI, Guo worked briefly at Quora, where she met co-founder Alexandr Wang, and later had a stint at Snapchat.
After moving on from Scale AI, Guo launched Backend Capital, a venture capital firm, and invested in rapidly growing startups like Ramp. In 2022, she founded Passes, a subscription-based content platform comparable to Patreon and OnlyFans, attracting big names such as gymnast Olivia Dunne, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, and DJ Kygo. Passes has since raised $50 million and is valued at $150 million.
However, Guo’s journey has not been without challenges. Last month, Passes faced legal scrutiny when a lawsuit alleged that the platform had hosted child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The company denied any wrongdoing, stating that all underage accounts had been banned prior to the lawsuit’s filing.
Guo’s latest milestone dethrones Taylor Swift, 35, who had held the title since late 2023. Of the world’s more than 100 self-made female billionaires, only six are under 40—and half of them are from the United States.
