- Austin Russell is the latest homemade billionaire on Forbes’ 2021 list of world billionaires.
- The 26-year-old runs a business that provides the technology for self-driving cars.
- Russell replaces Kylie Jenner, who was removed in 2020.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Austin Russell, 26, is the youngest self-made billionaire on Forbes’ annual list of billionaires in the world, released on Tuesday.
Russell became a billionaire almost overnight in December when his company, Luminar Technologies, was listed on the Nasdaq via a stock exchange
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merger. Forbes estimates Russell’s net worth at $ 2.4 billion.
Russell received a $ 100,000 scholarship in 2012 from billionaire investor Peter Thiel and left Stanford to establish Luminar Technologies, which builds sensors for autonomous vehicles.
The company’s sensors were used to create self-driving cars at companies such as Volvo and Toyota. Luminar’s technology relies on lidar, which uses light pulses to create a 3D map of the environment of a car, which determines the best course and avoids obstacles.
In 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the technology ‘doomed’. Instead of lidar – which has become popular among car companies, including Alphabet’s Waymo -, Tesla relies on external cameras for its “Full Self-Driving” software.
Russell replaces Kylie Jenner on the list after Forbes removed her in May, saying her net worth in the documents she provided was too high.
“What do I wake up with,” she said wrote in a tweet responds to Forbes’ decision. “I thought it was a reputable site. All I see is a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I’ve never asked for a title or ever tried to get there.”
Jenner was on the cover of Forbes in 2018 as one of the richest homemade women in the US. It came back again when some people questioned whether she was really ‘self-made’ because of her family’s wealth.
Russell is one of four homemade billionaires on Forbes’ 2021 list who are in their twenties; the others are the founders of DoorDash, Andy Fang and Stanley Tang, and the crypto-investor Sam Bankman-Fried. All four are new additions to the list.
There have been several developments on this year’s list as COVID-19 shakes up the economy. Former President Donald Trump dropped 298 places on Forbes’ rankings. Bloomberg estimates that Trump’s net worth plummeted by $ 700 million during his presidency.
The youngest billionaire on Forbes’ list was Kevin David Lehmann (18), a German drugstore heiress worth $ 3.3 billion.
Read the full list on Forbes’ website.