Dubai: Many people dream of becoming super rich before reaching their forties, but only a few of them get so lucky. As of this year, there are 1,826 billionaires around the world. At least ten of them are under 35 years old and have a combined net worth of $83.3 billion (Dh305 billion).
The latest list of richest billionaires under 35 by Wealth-X is dominated by founders of technology startups. The list reveals more interesting findings, however. Nearly half of those who landed in the top ten are college dropouts and about half of them went to top-rated universities in the United States. Eight of them are self-made billionaires, while at least two were achievers in school.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg emerged as the richest person on the list, with a net worth of $41.6 billion. Zuckerberg, 31, started developing Facebook while he was still in Harvard University and decided to quit school to concentrate on his project that later became a multi-billion dollar company.
The second richest person under 35 is another former Harvard University dropout Dustin Aaron Moskovitz, 31. He used to be Zuckerberg’s roommate. He quit university to help Zuckerberg develop Facebook but later left to start his own software company, Asana. His net worth is pegged at $9.3 billion.
Huiyan Yang, 34, who has a net worth of $5.9 billion, secured the third spot. She is one of the few young billionaires on the list who acquired their fortunes from inheritance. Yang is the daughter of Chinese property tycoon Yeung Kwok Keung, who founded Country Garden Holdings. Yang, however, had once studied at a school in the United States, Ohio State University, and earned a degree in marketing and logistics.
Eduardo Luiz Saverin, 33, is the fourth richest billionaire, with a net worth of $5.3 billion. He is one of the six people on the list who built their fortunes on technology. He also helped Zuckerberg develop Facebook. But unlike his co-founders, Saverin went on to finish his bachelor’s degree in economics at Harvard and graduated magna cum laude. Saverin later sold his share in the company and started investing in startups. He had also renounced his US citizenship and is now based in Singapore.
The fifth richest person under 35 is Scott Daniel Duncan of Enterprise Products Partners. At 32, Duncan has a fortune of $5 billion to his name. Like Yang, Duncan, is not a self-made billionaire, as he inherited his wealth upon his father’s death.
Elizabeth Holmes, another dropout, is the sixth richest billionaire with a net worth of $4.5 billion. She is the founder of Theranos Wellness Center, which offers a relatively painless way to take blood samples. The American started the blood test company when she was 19 years old and studying chemical engineering at Stanford University. She was a Stanford President’s Scholar.
Rounding up to the top ten are young technopreneurs and Airbnb co-founders Nathan Blecharczyk, 32; Brian Chesky, 33; and Joe Gebbia, 33; as well as Thomas Persson, 30, of fashion giant H&M. Each of the three Airbnb founders has a net worth of $3 billion, while H&M’s Persson has $2.7 billion.
