Like many generations before them, millennials are often accused of being lazy or entitled by their elders. Yet many young people have worked hard and innovated to create a new wave of businesses that have disrupted entrenched industries — and made their millennial founders ultra-wealthy in the process.
24/7 Wall St. reviewed media outlets such as Forbes and Bloomberg to determine the wealthiest self-made millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 — by net worth.
Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the richest millennial entrepreneurs earned their money in tech industries. Ubiquitous services like Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, and Instagram have made their young founders into billionaires. The most well-known of these is Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is several times greater than that of any other millennial on this list.
Over the last year, the richest millennial entrepreneurs list has changed quite a bit. As technology has spread across the globe, more and more young people have the resources needed to become successful. This list, which last year had 25 of 30 slots filled by Americans, now has just 17 from the U.S., most of them residing in and around California’s Silicon Valley. In addition, the list has six people from China, two apiece from Canada and India, and one each from Brazil, Russia, and Sweden.
There are numerous other millennials worth $1 billion or more who did not make the list because much of their net worth came through an inheritance or a family business, meaning they are not truly self-made entrepreneurs.
There is also at least one member of Gen Z, the generation younger than millennials, who is a billionaire entrepreneur: Kylie Jenner. At just 21, Jenner leveraged the fame and fortune of being in the Kardashian-Jenner family to turn her cosmetics company, Kylie Cosmetics, into a power player in the beauty world, especially among young people.
Click here to see the 30 richest millennial entrepreneurs.
Methodology
To identify the richest millennial entrepreneurs in the world, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed sources such as Forbes and Bloomberg to find the people born between 1981 and 1996 with the highest to-date net worth. We used each individual’s real-time net worth as of March 14, 2019. Those without an up-to-date net worth were not considered. Those who inherited their wealth or derived much of their net worth from a family business they did not found were not considered. The age of each entrepreneur is calculated as of March 14, 2019.
Source: Photo by Jyothy Karat
30. Sachin Bansal
> Net worth: $1 billion
> Age: 37
> Company: Flipkart
> Citizenship: India
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Source: Roger Kisby / Getty Images
29. Evan Sharp
> Net worth: $1 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Pinterest
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Jasveer10 / Wikimedia Commons
28. Binny Bansal
> Net worth: $1 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Flipkart
> Citizenship: India
Source: Anran / Wikimedia Commons
27. Cheng Wei
> Net worth: $1.2 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Didi Chuxing
> Citizenship: China
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Source: Steve Jennings / Getty Images
26. Brian Armstrong
> Net worth: $1.3 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Coinbase
> Citizenship: United States
Source: Courtesy of Wish
25. Peter Szulczewski
> Net worth: $1.4 billion
> Age: 37
> Company: Wish
> Citizenship: Canada
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Source: Spencer Platt / Getty Images
24. Kevin Systrom
> Net worth: $1.4 billion
> Age: 35
> Company: Instagram
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Brian Ach / Getty Images
23. Chris Wanstrath
> Net worth: $1.4 billion
> Age: 33
> Company: GitHub
> Citizenship: United States
Source: Courtesy of Jihan Wu via Twitter
22. Jihan Wu
> Net worth: $1.5 billion
> Age: 33
> Company: Bitmain Technologies
> Citizenship: China
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Source: Roger Kisby / Getty Images
21. Ben Silbermann
> Net worth: $1.6 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Pinterest
> Citizenship: United States
Source: ryangraves / Twitter
20. Ryan Graves
> Net worth: $1.6 billion
> Age: 35
> Company: Uber
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Courtesy of Royole
19. Bill Liu
> Net worth: $1.7 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Royole Corp
> Citizenship: China
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Source: Union Eleven / Wikimedia Commons
18. Tobi Lutke
> Net worth: $1.8 billion
> Age: 38
> Company: Shopify
> Citizenship: Canada
Source: Phillip Faraone / Getty Images
17. Patrick Collison
> Net worth: $2.1 billion
> Age: 30
> Company: Stripe
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Brian Ach / Getty Images
16. John Collison
> Net worth: $2.1 billion
> Age: 28
> Company: Stripe
> Citizenship: United States
Source: Drew Angerer / Getty Images
15. Drew Houston
> Net worth: $2.1 billion
> Age: 35
> Company: Dropbox
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
14. Daniel Ek
> Net worth: $2.3 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Spotify
> Citizenship: Sweden
Source: Michael Kovac / Getty Images
13. Evan Spiegel
> Net worth: $2.5 billion
> Age: 28
> Company: Snapchat
> Citizenship: United States
Source: Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images
12. Bobby Murphy
> Net worth: $2.5 billion
> Age: 30
> Company: Snapchat
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Nadine Rupp / Getty Images
11. Pavel Durov
> Net worth: $2.7 billion
> Age: 34
> Company: Telegram Messenger
> Citizenship: Russia
Source: Theo Wargo / Getty Images
10. Sean Parker
> Net worth: $2.7 billion
> Age: 38
> Company: Facebook
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Courtesy of Kuaishou
9. Su Hua
> Net worth: $2.9 billion
> Age: 37
> Company: Kuaishou
> Citizenship: China
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Source: Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images
8. Joe Gebbia
> Net worth: $3.7 billion
> Age: 37
> Company: Airbnb
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Mike Windle / Getty Images
7. Brian Chesky
> Net worth: $3.7 billion
> Age: 37
> Company: Airbnb
> Citizenship: United States
Source: Mike Windle / Getty Images for Airbnb
6. Nathan Blecharczyk
> Net worth: $3.7 billion
> Age: 35
> Company: Airbnb
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Courtesy of DJI
5. Frank Wang
> Net worth: $5.4 billion
> Age: 38
> Company: DJI
> Citizenship: China
Source: Jason Kempin / Getty Images for Common Sense Media
4. Eduardo Saverin
> Net worth: $9.9 billion
> Age: 36
> Company: Facebook
> Citizenship: Brazil
Source: Araya Diaz / Getty Images
3. Dustin Moskovitz
> Net worth: $11.3 billion
> Age: 34
> Company: Facebook
> Citizenship: United States
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Source: Courtesy of Zhang Yiming via Facebook
2. Zhang Yiming
> Net worth: $16.2 billion
> Age: 35
> Company: Beijing ByteDance
> Citizenship: China
Source: David Ramos / Getty Images
1. Mark Zuckerberg
> Net worth: $63.4 billion
> Age: 34
> Company: Facebook
> Citizenship: United States
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