Taylor Swift may be the reigning queen of pop, but when it comes to the title of youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world, there’s a new name flashing in neon lights: Lucy Guo.
At just 30 years old, Guo has officially edged past Swift on Forbes’ 10th Anniversary list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, claiming the crown with a jaw-dropping net worth of $1.3 billion.
Guo’s meteoric rise is rooted in the high-octane world of tech, not music. A former Carnegie Mellon computer science student, she dropped out early and never looked back. By 2016, she co-founded the AI unicorn Scale AI alongside Alexander Wang, pocketing a sizable stake before moving on in 2018. That same year, she landed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30—and that was just a warm-up act.
Fast-forward to 2022, and Guo launched Passes, a platform helping creators connect directly with fans via livestreams, podcasts, and private messaging. In just two years, Passes has raised a staggering $50 million, propelling Guo into the billionaire stratosphere. Her blend of grit, coding chops, and investor magnetism has made her a tech-world force, and now, the youngest woman to self-make a billion-dollar fortune.
But who is Lucy Guo beyond the numbers?
She lives bi-coastal between a sleek LA home and a swanky Miami apartment. Her commute? An electric skateboard or her assistant behind the wheel. Cooking? Never heard of it—Uber Eats keeps her fueled while she works through lunch at her desk. Vacations? A foreign concept. Even when she’s “off,” she’s still clocking eight-hour workdays.
Despite the grind, Guo isn’t all hustle and no fun. She’s a self-professed rave aficionado, a Barry’s Bootcamp addict (3,000 classes and counting), and a newly minted amateur DJ. And when she turned 30 last October, she celebrated in style—with Lucypalooza, a birthday bash as audacious as her ascent.
Still, even billionaires aren’t immune to personal reflection. In an Instagram post, Guo candidly shared her fears about turning 30 unmarried and childless—a pressure she attributes to her traditional Chinese upbringing.
But in classic Guo fashion, she flipped the script: “Every year I’m getting richer AND hotter,” she wrote. And judging by her trajectory, she’s not wrong.
