Top 10 youngest billionaires 2026: AI revolution drives surge in youngest billionaires with Steven Hao at top

Top 10 youngest billionaires 2026 in the world: From Cognition AI's Steven Hao to Anthropic's co-founders, tech entrepreneurs are dominating the ranks of the world's youngest billionaires this year.

Top 10 youngest billionaires 2026: Forbes recently released the list of the top 10 youngest billionaires from the Forbes 400. This year’s list shows a significant increase due to the AI revolution, with seven new billionaires under 40, compared to only four last year. Notably, all seven newcomers owe their fortunes to the AI boom.

Four of the seven newcomers hail from only one company: Anthropic (founded in 2021). Meanwhile, all seven co-founders on the list are worth an estimated $15.5 billion. These include Tom Brown (39), Daniela Amodei (39), Jack Clark (37), and Sam McClandish (36).

Anthropic was valued at $965 billion after all seven co-founders vowed to eventually give away 80 per cent of their wealth, with the company funded by $65 billion.

Co-founder of Cognition (AI lab and software company), Steven Hao (30) earned the title of the world’s youngest billionaire with a net worth of $5.8 billion. He along with Scott Wu and Walden Yan (co-founders of Cognition) won gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global competitive programming championship. Hao left Scale AI to start Cognition in 2023.

The company’s prime product is Devin, an AI agent that writes and repairs code, often used by clients like Citibank and fintech Ramp. Cognition raised $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation, making all three co-founders billionaires. Hao is Cognition’s largest founder shareholder and CTO. He is also the only one rich enough to make this year’s Forbes 400.

Palmer Luckey (33), with a net worth of $5.9 billion, comes second on the list. Sam McClandish (36), Jack Clark (37), and Greg Brockman (37) rank No. 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Edwin Chen (38), Daniela Amodei (39), the only woman on the list, and Tom Brown (39) ranked No. 6, 7, and 8, respectively. Vlad Tenev (39) was ranked at No. 9, while Lukas Walton (39) closed out the top 10 youngest billionaires list.