Meet the World's 10 Youngest Billionaires
The world’s youngest billionaire is just 21 years old and has been in the 10-digit club for two years now. Whether their fortunes came from an inheritance or building a company from the ground up, these are the world’s top 10 youngest billionaires as of July 2018, according to Forbes.
Lukas is the grandson of the famous Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, and inherited his fortune from his late father. He is the wealthiest billionaire on this list and is an active investor and philanthropist who has maintained his stake in Walmart.
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Wang inherited his wealth from his deceased father through a 27 percent stake in Juneyao Airlines, a budget Chinese airline. His father founded the Juneyao Group, which has business involvement in retail, education and food, in addition to airline travel. Wang emerged as a billionaire in 2015 when the Juneyao Airlines stock tripled in value in less than three weeks.
Patrick is a co-founder and current CEO of Stripe, a technology company allowing easy payments over the internet, with big-name investors such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. At number four on this list you’ll find Patrick’s younger brother, John, with whom he co-founded the company.
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Bobby co-founded Snap Inc. with Evan Spiegel, whom he met while studying mathematics and computational science at Stanford University. He still owns much of the company, which operates major social media channel Snapchat, giving him an estimated net worth of $3 billion.
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Ludwig’s wealth stems from his 10 percent stake of family-owned medical device company B. Braun Melsungen, a manufacturer of injection solutions and surgical instruments. This 28-year-old billionaire has four siblings, who have also been made into billionaires due to the company’s growth. According to Forbes, the company achieved over $7.9 billion in sales in 2017.
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Evan is the chief executive officer and the second half of the duo who co-founded Snap Inc., a camera company that operates the popular social media platform Snapchat for photo messaging. Evan studied product design at Stanford University and is worth $3 billion, as Snap Inc. had a market capitalization of over $16 billion as of July 2018.
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John is a 27-year-old Irish entrepreneur who co-founded Stripe, a software company that allows businesses to instantly connect with credit card and banking systems to receive payments. He co-founded the company with his older brother Patrick when they were in college in Boston. Stripe is worth approximately $9.2 billion.
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Gustav’s fortune comes from his almost 50 percent ownership stake of Salma ASA, one of the world’s largest salmon producers. His father gave him the stake in 2013 after founding the company in 1991. Gustav currently invests in real estate and technology startups while his father continues running the company.
In 2007, Katharina and her younger sister Alexandra were each transferred 42.2 percent stakes in their father’s Norwegian investment company that runs hedge funds, Ferd. These two sisters have been number 1 and 2 on the list of youngest billionaires since 2016. Alexandra, younger sister of Katharina Andresen, also gained her fortune through her father by inheriting a 42.2 percent stake in Ferd. Just like her older sister, she is worth approximately $1.4 billion and is currently the youngest billionaire in the world at just 21 years old. Alexandra achieved billionaire status at just 19 years of age.
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Sources: Forbes, Investopedia, Wall Street Journal
Holdings may change daily. Holdings are reported as of the most recent quarter-end. None of the securities mentioned in the article were held by any accounts managed by U.S. Global Investors as of 6/30/2018.