Lucy Guo (30), co-founder of the artificial intelligence corporation ScaleAI, surpassed pop star Taylor Swift (35) to be named the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.
According to the American economic media outlet Forbes on the 23rd, ScaleAI's corporate value is $25 billion (about 35 trillion won). Guo left ScaleAI in 2018 but still holds a 5% equity stake. Her equity stake has been valued at about $1.2 billion (about 1.71 trillion won). Considering the equity in her second startup "Pathis," her total assets are estimated to be $1.25 billion (about 1.78 trillion won).
Currently, there are only six self-made female billionaires under the age of 40, including Guo. Regarding her ascent to the top of female billionaires, Guo said, "I don't think about it deeply; everything just exists on paper."
Guo, born into a Chinese immigrant family, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and began coding in middle school. After dropping out of Carnegie Mellon University’s computer engineering program, she participated in a fellowship run by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Guo met Alexander Wang while working as a product designer at the Q&A platform Quora in 2015. Afterward, she worked at Snapchat before co-founding ScaleAI with Wang in 2016. Wang took on the role of CEO, while Guo led operations and the product design team.
ScaleAI began its operations focusing on labeling data for AI training and has now expanded its business to include analyzing satellite images of Ukraine and supporting the training of OpenAI's ChatGPT. However, disagreements over the direction of the company's operations led to a conflict between Guo and Wang, and Guo left the company to establish Pathis.
Pathis is a platform that allows celebrities to interact with fans, having signed contracts with gymnast Olivia Dunne, basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, DJ Kygo, and others. It secured an investment of $50 million (about 70 billion won) from Bond Capital and has been valued at $150 million (about 210 billion won).