AI boom creates dozens of new billionaires in record time
Valuations soar as startups like Safe Superintelligence and Anthropic hit record highs.
While developments in AI technology threaten to eliminate many jobs, they are also creating dozens of new billionaires. In fact, according to CNBC, artificial intelligence is driving the greatest wealth creation boom in modern history.
A string of successful funding rounds this year, including for startups like Anthropic, Safe Superintelligence, and OpenAI, have produced paper billionaires and pushed valuations to record highs. According to research firm CB Insights, there are currently 498 AI “unicorns,” private companies valued at $1 billion or more, with at least 100 founded in just the past two years. Bloomberg reports that the four largest private AI companies alone have created 15 billionaires with a combined net worth of $38 billion.
Combined with the surging stock prices of AI-linked giants like Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft, plus infrastructure firms building the data centers and computing power behind them, AI is generating personal fortunes on a scale that makes the previous two technology booms look modest.
The new billionaires include Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI, whose September-founded startup Thinking Machines Lab is already valued at $12 billion. Another OpenAI alumnus, Ilya Sutskever, became a billionaire this year after his startup Safe Superintelligence hit a valuation of more than $32 billion less than a year after launch.
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The founders of Anthropic, including CEO Dario Amodei, have also joined the billionaire ranks. Reports indicate the Claude chatbot maker is in talks to raise $5 billion at a valuation of $170 billion. Another name making waves is Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, now backed by Meta, who recently moved to lead the tech giant’s AI team. His net worth is estimated at $3.6 billion, making him the world’s youngest billionaire entrepreneur.
