Taylor Swift dethroned: Lucy Guo becomes youngest self-made female Billionaire

Published April 24th, 2025 - 06:40 GMT
Taylor Swift / Lucy Guo
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 02: Taylor Swift (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images via AFP) / BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 16: Lucy Guo Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Passes/AFP

ALBAWABA - Taylor Swift is no longer the youngest self-made female billionaire—tech genius Lucy Guo now holds that title.

Three years prior to Swift, another female boss achieved the remarkable feat, Although Taylor Swift remains the wealthiest woman in the music industry, she has recently faced challenges in another area.

Since 2023, the 35-year-old singer has also been the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world; however, the distinction has since been given to another incredibly successful female leader.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 02: Taylor Swift (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images via AFP)

According to Forbes, Swift became a billionaire by the age of 33 thanks to the money she made from her global Eras Tour and the value of her song library.

Approximately $600 million of her estimated $1.6 billion net worth is thought to have come from royalties and touring, and she also owns roughly $125 million in real estate.

Swift also once claimed the distinction of being the youngest female self-made billionaire in history, which some may consider invaluable.

Taylor Swift's music and tour earnings have made her extremely wealthy. (TAS Rights Management/Getty Images/Kevin Winter/TAS24)

However, she has now lost that distinction to tech mogul Lucy Guo, who, three years ahead of Swift, managed to amass a cash account comparable to the biggest music star in the world, according to Forbes.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 16: Lucy Guo Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Passes/AFP

The 30-year-old is a co-founder of Scale AI, a data annotation business based in California that offers labeled data for AI application training.

Guo, who majored in computer science before leaving college to pursue a fellowship, founded the company in 2016 at the age of 21 alongside Alexandr Wang, who was 19 at the time.

She oversaw the operations and product design teams of the San Francisco company, and Wang served as CEO. Forbes' 30 Under 30 list featured the pair two years later.

After reportedly disagreeing with Wang over how Scale AI was being operated, Guo later quit the company, saying in a statement, "We had a difference of opinion, but I am proud of what Scale AI has accomplished."

However, she retained her ownership part in the company, which is estimated to be around five percent; the value of this portion has increased due to a deal that is presently being finalized.

According to Forbes, Scale AI is finalizing an offer that would enable early staff members and investors in the nine-year-old business to sell shares to new or existing investors.

When it's finished on June 1st, the company's worth is expected to soar to a staggering $25 billion, an astounding 80 percent increase over this time last year.

Forbes predicts that the entrepreneur's stake would now soar to $1.2 billion as a result of everything, enabling her to unseat Swift from the top spot.

It is estimated that Guo's entire net worth, including her ownership of her second startup company, Passes, will be $1.25 billion.

She now belongs to an exclusive group of women who have transformed themselves to become billionaires before turning forty, something that just six other women on earth do.

As previously disclosed to Fortune, Guo had an 'extremely frugal' upbringing and continued to 'live inexpensively' until she had had'made her first $10 million.'

As she stated in 2023, "Be thrifty and always live below your means." She believes that's the finest way to live.

"A lot of people up their lifestyles when they start making more money, which causes them to not save as much. The more money you save, the more you can invest, which compounds over the years.

"Your network is your net worth."

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