PRESS RELEASE

HURUN GLOBAL U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES 2026

HURUN FINDS RECORD 108 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD AGED 40 & UNDER, UP 30 IN YEAR.

USA LEADS WITH 50, UP 19. CHINA SECOND WITH 29, UP 8. USA AND CHINA HAVE 73%, UP 2%, OF TOTAL.

INDIA AND UK THIRD AND FOURTH, WITH 8 AND 4 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES.

EDWIN CHEN, 38, OF SAN FRANCISCO-BASED SURGE AI, WITH US$19BN, RICHEST SELF-MADE INDIVIDUAL IN WORLD AGED 40 AND UNDER.

JOINT SECOND WITH US$16BN EACH: PALO ALTO-BASED BRETT ADCOCK, 39, OF HUMANOID ROBOTICS COMPANY FIGURE AI (UP 1,043%), AND BEIJING-BASED GRANT WANG NING, 39, OF LABUBU MAKER POP MART (UP 132%).

AUSTRALIA-BASED MELANIE PERKINS, 38, AND HUSBAND CLIFF OBRECHT, 39, OF GRAPHIC DESIGN PLATFORM CANVA, FOURTH WITH US$13BN, UP 63%.

COLLISON BROTHERS JOHN, 35, AND PATRICK, 37, OF SAN FRANCISCO-BASED PAYMENTS PLATFORM STRIPE SHARE FOURTH PLACE WITH US$13BN EACH, UP 55%.

56 NEW FACES, HIGHEST SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 2016, UP 42. NOTABLE DEBUTS INCLUDE MELBOURNE-BASED ED CRAVEN AND BIJAN TEHRANI OF CRYPTO-BACKED ONLINE CASINO STAKE (US$5BN EACH); AND FOUR ANTHROPIC CO-FOUNDERS CHRISTOPHER OLAH, SAM MCCANDLISH, TOM BROWN, AND DANIELA AMODEI, EACH WITH US$3.7BN.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EMERGES AS THE #1 WEALTH-CREATING SECTOR FOR FIRST TIME, WITH 27 BILLIONAIRES UP FROM ZERO THREE YEARS AGO, ACCOUNTING FOR 25% OF HURUN LIST.

RUSSIA-BORN DMITRII BUKHMAN, 40, OF LONDON-BASED ONLINE GAMING COMPANY PLAYRIX, GROWS WEALTH TO US$12BN, UP 31%.

SHANGHAI-BASED HUGH CAI HAOYU, LIU WEI, AND LUO YUHAO OF GAMING STUDIO MIHOYO ALL MAKE TOP TEN WITH US$12BN, US$6.7BN, AND US$6.4BN.

SAM ALTMAN, 40, OF OPENAI, TRIPLED WEALTH TO US$4.7BN AND 18^TH PLACE.

TOP TEN MOST VALUABLE COMPANIES CO-FOUNDED BY A HURUN U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE COLLECTIVELY WORTH US$1.8 TRILLION, LED BY OPENAI (US$840BN), ANTHROPIC (US$380BN), APPLOVIN (US$200BN),  STRIPE (US$107BN), ROBINHOOD (US$100BN), AND DOORDASH (US$90BN).

FOOTBALL LEGENDS CRISTIANO RONALDO, 40, AND LIONEL MESSI, 38, MAKE CUT WITH US$1.4BN EACH.

5 CRYPTO BILLIONAIRES AGED 40 & UNDER, UP 1: FREDERICK ERNEST EHRSAM III OF CRYPTO EXCHANGE COINBASE (US$5.5BN), WU JIHAN OF BITCOIN MINER BITDEER (US$1.8BN), BRENDAN BLUMER OF CRYPTO EXCHANGE BULLISH (US$1.8BN), NIKIL VISWANATHAN OF BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPER PLATFORM ALCHEMY (US$1.6BN), AND SINGAPORE-BASED CRYPTO INVESTOR JUSTIN SUN  (US$1.4BN).

AGE BREAKDOWN: 44 ARE AGED 35 & UNDER; 15 ARE 30 & UNDER; 5 ARE 25 & UNDER.

YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD: THREE SAN FRANCISCO-BASED 22 YEAR OLDS — BRENDAN FOODY, ADARSH HIREMATH, AND SURYA MIDHA OF AI HIRING PLATFORM MERCOR WITH US$2.4BN EACH, AND TWO  25 YEAR OLDS — AMAN SANGER AND MICHAEL TRUELL OF AI CODING TOOL ANYSPHERE, WITH US$1.5BN EACH.

11 WOMEN U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES, UP 4, LED BY DANIELA AMODEI OF ANTHROPIC WITH US$3.7BN, FOLLOWED BY MIRANDA QU OF SHANGHAI-BASED SHORT VIDEO APP XIAOHONGSHU (US$3.1BN). OTHERS INCLUDE TAYLOR SWIFT (US$1.6BN), RIHANNA (US$1.5BN). FOUR ARE AGED 35 & UNDER, LED BY LUCY GOU OF DATA LABELLER TRAINER SCALE AI (US$1.3BN), LUANA LOPES LARA OF ONLINE PREDICTION MARKET KALSHI (US$1.3BN), YOUNGEST SELF-MADE WOMAN BILLIONAIRE AND ONLY UNDER 30 SELF-MADE WOMAN IN THE WORLD, KYLIE JENNER, 28, WITH US$1.2BN, AND LU JIANXIA OF MANNER COFFEE WITH US$1BN.

INDIA’S IIT ALUMNI WITH 6 SELF-MADE U40S, AHEAD OF HARVARD WITH 4. MIT AND STANFORD GRADUATES LEAD WITH 10 AND 8 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES.

23 OR 21% ARE IMMIGRANTS, MAINLY TO USA (14), FOLLOWED BY UK AND SINGAPORE (2 EACH).

SAN FRANCISCO WORLD'S LEADING CITY FOR U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES WITH 22 ENTRANTS, UP 11. SHANGHAI SECOND WITH 11 (UP 3) AND NEW YORK THIRD WITH 10.

61%, DOWN FROM 75% LAST YEAR, MADE THEIR MONEY FROM SELLING TO CONSUMERS, WHILST 39% SELL TO BUSINESSES, REFLECTING THE SURGE IN B2B AI AND SOFTWARE COMPANIES.

ONLY 17% MADE THEIR MONEY FROM SELLING PHYSICAL PRODUCTS, WHILST 83% SELL SOFTWARE & SERVICES.

HURUN REPORT, WORLD’S LARGEST RICH LIST PROVIDER, RELEASES HURUN GLOBAL U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES 2026.

(10 March 2026, Shanghai, China, Mumbai, India, and Oxford, UK) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Forty and Under Self-Made Billionaires 2026, a ranking of the world’s self-made dollar billionaires aged forty or under. This is a sublist of the Hurun Global Rich List 2026, released on 5 March 2026. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 15 January 2026.  This is the 9^th edition of the list, which Hurun started in 2016.

Hurun Research found 108 self-made billionaires in the world aged 40 & under, up 30. They came from 16 countries, up 2. Their total wealth was US$347bn, down 31%. 8 individuals, up 3, are worth US$10bn or more. The average age was 36 years.

14 saw their wealth go down, of which 1 dropped out. A further 17 from last year turned 41 years old, so no longer made the age cutoff. 93 saw their wealth go up, of which 56 were new faces. 2 saw their wealth not change.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said,

“The Hurun Under40s Self-Made Billionaires of the World tells the story of what the next generation of entrepreneurs are making their money in. We found 108 self-made billionaires in the world, and for the first time, Artificial Intelligence is the number one wealth-creating sector, accounting for 27 billionaires with a combined wealth of nearly US$100bn. At the top of the list sits Edwin Chen of Surge AI with US$19bn, followed by Brett Adcock of humanoid robotics company Figure AI at US$16bn — up an extraordinary eleven-fold in a single year. These 108 individuals have already created huge wealth at such a young age. How big can they get by the time they reach the age of Elon Musk, Jensen Huang or Warren Buffett, and what will they do with all that wealth? Give it to charity, invest it in the next wave of entrepreneurs, or pass it to their children? Hurun promotes entrepreneurship through its lists and research, and this list exists to inspire the next generation to learn from the world's most successful young entrepreneurs.”

“What makes this cohort truly extraordinary is just how young some of them are. Of the 108 self-made billionaires in the world, 44 are aged 35 & under. And of these, 15 are 30 & under, and, unbelievably, there are five self-made billionaires aged 25 or under — all in AI or AI-adjacent fields, led by three 22-year old co-founders of AI hiring platform Mercor: Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, and two 25 year olds, Aman Sanger and Michael Truell of Anysphere, the company behind AI coding tool Cursor.”

“The companies co-founded by members of the Hurun Global U40 collectively represent one of the most extraordinary concentrations of value creation in economic history. Together, they have a valuation of US$2.7 trillion, which would make them one of the Top 10 countries in the world, more than the GDP of Canada! 40 of these companies are worth more than US$10bn. OpenAI leads at US$840bn, followed by Anthropic at $380bn, AppLovin at $200bn, Robinhood at $110bn, Stripe at $107bn and DoorDash at $90bn. But beyond the headline AI names, several other companies deserve recognition. CoreWeave — co-founded by Brannin McBee (40) — has become the critical GPU cloud infrastructure company of the AI era, valued at US$47bn after its Nasdaq listing. Pop Mart, the company behind Labubu, founded by Grant Wang is now worth US$33bn and Xiaohongshu, the Chinese short video platform co-founded by Mao Wenchao and MIranda Qu, is now valued at US$31bn.”

“Eleven women feature on the Hurun U40 Self-made Billionaires this year — the highest ever. For the first time, a technology entrepreneur leads the women's ranking: Daniela Amodei (38) of Anthropic at US$3.7bn, one of four Anthropic co-founders on the list. She is joined by Miranda Qu (40) of Xiaohongshu at US$3.1bn; Lu Yiwen (39) of Chinese diamond brand DR at US$1.8bn; Shen Fenghua (40) of Tianmai at US$1.7bn; musicians Taylor Swift (36) at US$1.6bn and Rihanna (37) at US$1.5bn, both of whom have built genuine business empires around their influence; Luana Lopes Lara (30) of prediction market Kalshi at US$1.3bn; Lucy Gou (31) of Scale AI at US$1.3bn; Wang Shuo (36) of HR platform Deel at US$1.3bn; Kylie Jenner (28) of Kylie Cosmetics at US$1.2bn; and Lu Jianxia (33) of Shanghai-based Manner Coffee at US$1bn. Seven of the eleven are based in the USA, four in China. Their combined wealth stands at US$19.5bn. The AI boom is creating more pathways for women to reach the very top.”

“The story is not only about AI. China is quietly generating a wave of consumer-facing billionaires that deserves equal attention. There are three bubble tea billionaires: Wang Yun'an (40) of Goodme at US$3.2bn; Zhang Junjie (31) of Chagee at US$1.2bn — a new entrant who left school aged 11; and Nie Yunchen (35) of Heytea, as well as Lu Jianxia (33) of Manner Coffee. Consumer electronics is another quiet winner: Liu Jingkang and Pan Yao of Arashi Vision have built a US$4.1bn fortune making cameras and action sports gear under the Insta360 brand, and Yu Hao (39) of Dreame — whose robot vacuums and hair appliances are sold globally — debuts at US$1.2bn. Food delivery also features through Andy Fang (33) and Stanley Tang (33) of DoorDash at US$2.1bn and US$2bn respectively, and Apoorva Mehta (39) of Instacart at US$1.2bn.”

“China’s young self-made billionaires are mainly in Entertainment, 10 of them, led by the founders of Mihoyo, Lilith and Xiaohongshu, followed by four in bubble tea and coffee brands, led by Goodme, Chagee, Heytea and Manner Coffee, and four in Consumer Brands, like Pop Mart, Insta360, Dreame and jewelry brand DR.”

“India deserves its own moment of recognition. With eight self-made billionaires on the Hurun Global U40 — its highest ever count — India is the third largest country on the list and the only major emerging market producing young self-made billionaires at scale across multiple sectors. What is striking is the breadth. Nikhil Kamath (39) of Zerodha, at US$3.8bn has democratised stock market investing for tens of millions of Indians. Alakh Pandey (33) and Prateek Maheshwari (37), both new entrants with $1.7bn each, have built Physics Wallah into a platform that delivers education to students across India, a deeply local solution to a uniquely Indian problem. Ritesh Agarwal (32) of OYO, also new this year, has built one of the world's largest hospitality companies from Bhubaneswar. And there are a further three Indians abroad: Aravind Srinivas (31), who left India for the USA, co-founded Perplexity, the AI search engine now valued at over US$9bn, entering the list at US$2.4bn. Ankur Jain (35), whose wealth rose 217% to US$3.8bn at Bilt Rewards, and Apoorva Mehta (39) of Instacart at US$1.2bn, are further proof that Indian-origin entrepreneurs are shaping the future of technology and finance globally. India's next generation of entrepreneurs has every reason to be optimistic.”

“The KOL phenomenon is now firmly established: Taylor Swift enters at US$1.6bn as the first musician to reach billionaire status primarily through touring and her own catalogue; Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo each debut at US$1.4bn, and Kylie Jenner, the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world, at US$1.2bn, exemplifies the KOL-to-entrepreneur model at its most powerful.” 

“On average, it took the world’s most successful self-made billionaires just nine years to make their first billion, but AI is rewriting the record books. Three individuals did it in just two years: Ilya Sutskever of Safe Superintelligence, Yang Zhiling of Moonshot AI, and Yin Qi of Qianli.”

“These companies, despite their extraordinary valuations, remain remarkably lean: OpenAI employs just 3,500 people yet is valued at US$840bn — US$240m of value per employee — while Anthropic has created US$380bn in value with a team of just 1,500, generating US$250m of value per employee. Together, the companies co-founded by Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires employ 54,000 people worldwide.”

“When you look across the 108 individuals on this list, certain patterns emerge that are genuinely instructive for the next generation of entrepreneurs. First, almost all of them — 95% — built their wealth from their very first business, started on average at age 25. Surprising to me, they did not need a first venture to learn their lessons. Second, they tend to build software rather than physical products, sell globally from day one, and are comfortable moving to wherever the best talent and capital are located — one in five has emigrated. Third, and perhaps most striking, is the educational background. Of the 65 individuals for whom we have university data, one in four attended MIT, Stanford, or Harvard. MIT alone accounts for ten names on this list, including Edwin Chen of Surge AI, Patrick Collison of Stripe, Alexandr Wang of Scale AI, and all four co-founders of the AI coding tool Anysphere. Stanford produced Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy of Snap, Vlad Tenev of Robinhood, and Sam Altman of OpenAI. Harvard counts John Collison of Stripe, Andrew Bialecki of Klaviyo, and Josh Kushner of Thrive Capital, best known as the younger brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law to Donald Trump, among its alumni. Interestingly, India’s IIT had more graduates on the Hurun U40 - with 6 - than Harvard, including Prateek Maheshwari of Physics Wallah, Nakul Aggarwal of BrowserStack, Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity, and Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Electric. In China, Jiaotong University and Nanjing University graduates led with four each, with Jiaotong’s alumni made up of the three Mihoyo founders and Charlewin Mao Wenchao of Xiaohongshu, and Nanjing University’s notable alumni including the three founders of Lilith and Liu Jingkang. Fourth, they met their co-founders either at their previous job, like the OpenAI alumni that went on to build Anthropic, or directly from university, such as the founders of Anysphere (MIT), Mihoyo (Shanghai Jiaotong Uni), Lilith (Nanjing Uni) and Ramp (Harvard). The era of the lone genius founder is less common than the mythology suggests.”

“Hurun is committed to promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun’s ‘start-up series’ has two main components, one for companies and one for individuals, making Hurun the world’s most complete list maker for start-ups in the world. At the company level, it begins with the Hurun Cheetah Index, start-ups most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years, moving onto the Hurun Gazelle Index, start-ups most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and finishing with the Hurun Unicorn Index, start-ups from the 2000s already worth US$1 billion or more. On the individual level, we have the Hurun Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s, for founders of businesses that are worth US$1 million, US$10 million, US$50 million and US$100 million, respectively.”

The Top 10 Hurun Global U40s

The Top 10 come from the US, China, the UK and Australia. They come from seven companies: Surge AI, Figure AI, Pop Mart, Canva, Stripe, Playrix and Mihoyo. Cutoff to the Top 10 was US$6.4bn.

There are five new faces.

Table 1: Top 10 Hurun Global Rich List – Forty and Under Self-Made Billionaires 2026

With US$19bn, Edwin Chen, 38, of Surge AI, debuted straight at the top of the list, making him the richest self-made individual in the world under the age of 40. The former Google and Twitter researcher quietly bootstrapped his San Francisco-based data annotation startup to over US$1bn in annual revenue. Providing crucial reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) and "clean" training data for AI giants like OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic, Surge AI recently conducted a monumental Series A financing round valuing the company at US$24bn. This catapulted Chen, who holds around a 75% stake, into the ranks of the world's wealthiest AI leaders.

US-based Brett Adcock, 39, of Figure AI, broke into the Hurun Top 10 with US$16bn following a staggering 1043% increase in his wealth over the year. Adcock's wealth surge is directly tied to explosive investor interest in humanoid robotics aiming to solve global labor shortages. Figure AI recently secured over US$1bn in a Series C funding round backed by industry heavyweights like Nvidia, Intel Capital, and Microsoft, valuing the robotics firm at an astonishing US$39bn post-money.

Sharing second place is China-based Grant Wang Ning & family, 39, of Pop Mart, who saw a massive 132% increase to reach US$16bn. This growth was driven by the explosive international popularity of Wang’s collectible toys, particularly the Labubu IP, cementing Pop Mart as a powerhouse in the new generation of global consumer brands.

Australia-based husband and wife Cliff Obrecht & Melanie Perkins, 39 and 38, of Canva, hold fourth place with US$13bn. Despite a 63% increase in their wealth as their digital design platform continues to expand its enterprise and AI offerings, their overall rank decreased slightly as the unprecedented generative AI and robotics boom minted massive new fortunes above them.

Sharing fourth spot with US$13bn each are USA-based brothers John Collison, 35, and Patrick Collison, 37, of Stripe. The payment platform continues to be a dominant force in fintech infrastructure, driving a 55% increase in the brothers' wealth as digital payments and enterprise SaaS spending remain robust globally.

Where do they live?

The USA remained the preferred country of residence, accounting for 50 self-made billionaires (46% of the total), a gain of 19 from the previous edition. Media & Entertainment (7 billionaires) and Transportation & Logistics (5) were the top wealth-creating sectors for US-based entrants.

China held second place with 29 billionaires, up 8 from the previous edition. The top three industries for China-based entrants were Artificial Intelligence, Media & Entertainment, and Consumer Goods. There were 15 new faces from China, including ‘JK’ Liu Jingkang of social media camera brand Insta360 and Yan Junjie of the LLM platform Minimax.

India ranked third with 8 billionaires, up 1. Top of the Indian contingent was stock trading platform Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath with US$3.8bn followed by Physics Wallah founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, both with US$1.7bn.

Australia and the UK each claimed fourth place with 4 billionaires apiece. Singapore and Germany were sixth with 2 each.

The full list spans 16 countries, with one each from Canada, Israel, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.

By city, San Francisco led with 22 billionaires, followed by Shanghai (11), New York (10), Shenzhen (7), with Bengaluru, Palo Alto and Los Angeles tied at 4 each.

Table 2: Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires by Country and City of Residence

Who’s Up?

93 individuals saw their wealth go up, of which 56 were new entrants.

Brett Adcock of Figure AI recorded the most dramatic gain, with his wealth rising US$14.6bn to US$16bn, driven by explosive investor appetite for humanoid robotics. Wang Ning & family of Pop Mart climbed US$9.1bn to US$16bn on the back of the global phenomenon of the Labubu collectible toy range. The Collison brothers each added US$4.6bn as Stripe consolidated its position as the backbone of digital payments infrastructure.

The new faces were dominated by artificial intelligence. Edwin Chen of Surge AI debuted at number one, while four executives from Anthropic – Christopher Olah, Sam McCandlish, Tom Brown, and Daniela Amodei – each entered at US$3.7bn. Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of Safe Superintelligence and previously of OpenAI, also made his debut at US$3.2bn.

Table 3: Biggest Gainers

Table 4: New Faces 

And, Who’s Down? 

14 individuals saw their wealth fall, of which one dropped off the list completely. The largest drop belonged to Andrew Bialecki of email marketing platform Klaviyo, whose wealth fell by US$1.6bn to US$2.8bn. Nick Molnar of Afterpay and Bobby Murphy of Snap each lost US$0.8bn. Shares of ad-reliant technology companies continued to face pressure following Apple's privacy changes, with Snap's Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel each recording declines.

Table 5: Biggest Losses of the Year

Dropoffs

18 individuals dropped off the list in total, of which 17 became ineligible after turning 41, and one fell below the US$1bn wealth threshold. The most prominent departures due to age included Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms, Pavel Durov of Telegram, Dustin Moskovitz of Meta Platforms, Chen Tianshi of Cambricon, and Nikolay Storonsky of Revolut.

Breakdown by Industry

For the first time, Artificial Intelligence tops the industry table with 27 billionaires — one in four on the entire list and a combined wealth of US$98.5bn. An extraordinary 23 of the 27 are new entrants this year, and their average age of 32 makes AI the youngest sector by far. Edwin Chen (38) of Surge AI leads at US$19bn, followed by Brett Adcock (39) of Figure AI at US$16bn up eleven-fold in a single year. Media & Entertainment and Financial Services share second place with 19 billionaires each. Media & Entertainment is anchored by the Mihoyo gaming trio and the KOL cohort — Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Messi and Ronaldo and is the most China-dominated sector, with 10 of 19 based there. Financial Services is led by the Collison brothers of Stripe at US$13bn each, with Ankur Jain of Bilt Rewards the fastest riser in the sector at +217%.

Software & Services slips to fourth with 11 billionaires, anchored by Canva's Cliff Obrecht (39) and Melanie Perkins (38) at US$13bn, up 63%. Consumer Goods is the surprise new entrant to the top five: Wang Ning (39) of Pop Mart alone accounts for US$16bn after a 132% surge, propelling the sector into the rankings. Beyond the top five, Blockchain has recovered strongly to four billionaires after the crypto winter, Aerospace & Defence makes its debut through Palmer Luckey of Anduril, and India's edtech sector lands two new names in Education & Training signalling that the next wave of industry disruption is already taking shape.

Table 6: Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2026 by Industry  

Youngest

The average age was 36 years, with 5 born in the 2000s. Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha are the youngest self-made billionaires in the world, aged 22.

Table 7: Youngest Self-Made Billionaires 

Immigrant Billionaires

23 individuals representing 21% of the Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2026 were born and raised in a country different from where they reside today. These immigrant billionaires overwhelmingly chose the USA as their adopted home (14), followed by the UK and Singapore (2 each). They came primarily from China (6), India (4), and Russia (3), with Ireland contributing 2.

Table 8: Country of Origin of U40 Self-Made Billionaire Emigrants

Q: How long does it take to make a billion dollars?

Table 9: Fastest to a Billion

Most Valuable Companies

The 108 Hurun U40s Self-made Billionaires have built companies worth US$2.5 trillion, with 40 of these companies worth over US$10bn.

Artificial intelligence dominates the top 10 companies. Four of the ten companies are AI-native, and together they account for over US$1.5 trillion in combined valuation, approximately 80% of the entire table's value. At the top sits OpenAI at US$840bn, following a landmark US$110bn funding round in February 2026 that became the largest private fundraise in history. Sam Altman (40), who famously held no equity in OpenAI when the company first went for-profit, now features on the U40 list at US$4.7bn. In second place, Anthropic at US$380bn is the standout riser. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, it raised US$30bn in February 2026 more than doubling its previous valuation — with annualized revenue now reaching US$14bn. Uniquely, Anthropic has four co-founders on the Hurun U40 list: Daniela Amodei (38), Christopher Olah (33), Sam McCandlish (35), and Tom Brown (38), each with US$3.7bn.

AppLovin takes third place at US$200bn, a testament to the explosive re-rating of AI-driven advertising technology in 2025. The company is co-founded by Eduardo Vivas (40) and Vasily Shikin (40), both on the U40 list. Alongside it sits Anduril Industries at US$60bn a notable inclusion and the sole defense-technology company in the table. Co-founded by Palmer Luckey (33), Anduril is currently raising at a US$60bn valuation, double its Series G price just nine months ago, reflecting surging investor appetite for AI-enabled autonomous defense systems.

The table's financial services cohort tells a more mixed story. Stripe holds steady at US$107bn co-founded by brothers Patrick Collison (37) and John Collison (35), both among the wealthiest individuals on the U40 list at US$13bn each, ahead of a widely anticipated IPO. Robinhood, led by Vlad Tenev (39), has recovered to US$100bn, while DoorDash, co-founded by Andy Fang (33) and Stanley Tang (33) stands at US$90bn, both having risen from their early 2026 lows. Coinbase at US$48bn, co-founded by Frederick Ehrsam III (37), reflects the softening of crypto markets in early 2026.

Rounding out the table, CoreWeave at US$47bn enters the top 10 for the first time. Co-founded by Brannin McBee (40), CoreWeave is the AI cloud infrastructure company that listed on Nasdaq in March 2025 and has quickly become one of the most critical suppliers of GPU compute to the AI industry. Canva at US$42bn co-founded by Australian couple Cliff Obrecht (39) and Melanie Perkins (38) remains one of the most valuable private software companies outside the USA. Figure AI, which featured in earlier versions of this table at US$39bn and is co-founded by the list's fastest riser Brett Adcock (39), sits just outside the Hurun Top 10 as CoreWeave's valuation has moved ahead.

The most valuable Chinese companies are Pop Mart (US$33bn) founded by Grant Wang; Xiaohongshu (US$31bn) founded by Mao Wenchao and Miranda Qu; Mihoyo (US$28bn) founded by Hugh Cai, Minimax (US$14bn) founded by Yan Junjie; and Arashi (US$14bn) founded by JK Liu.

Other notable companies driven by U40 entrepreneurs include Perplexity (US$20bn), Deel (US$17bn), Surge AI (US$15bn), Snap (US$14bn), Scale AI (US$14bn) and Celonis (US$13bn).

Table 10: Most Valuable Companies on Hurun Global U40 List

Education — Top Universities Attended by U40 Self-Made Billionaires

MIT and Stanford together account for 18 U40 self-made billionaires, reflecting the disproportionate share of STEM-focused elite institutions. IIT (India) contributes 6 members across its network of campuses. Shanghai Jiaotong University and Nanjing University lead for China.

65% of China self-made billionaires started their businesses straight out of university, while 35% worked for big companies before founding their own businesses.

Table 11: Top 7 Universities Attended by U40 Self-Made Billionaires

Table 12: Key Stats of Hurun Global U40s Throughout the Years

Hurun Report Disclaimer

This report has been prepared by the Hurun Report. All the data collection and research have been done by the Hurun Report. This report is meant for informational purposes only. Reasonable care and caution have been taken in preparing this report. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that are considered reliable. By accessing and/or using any part of the report, the user accepts this disclaimer and exclusion of liability, which operates to the benefit of Hurun Report. Hurun Report does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information contained in the report, and neither shall it be responsible for any errors or omissions in or for the results obtained from the use of such information. No third party whose information is referenced in this report under the credit to it assumes any liability towards the user with respect to its information. Hurun Report shall not be liable for any decisions made by the user based on this report (including those of investment or divestiture) and the user takes full responsibility for their decisions made based on this report. Hurun Report shall not be liable to any user of this report (and expressly disclaims liability) for any loss, damage of any nature, including but not limited to direct, indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, consequential losses, loss of profit, lost business and economic loss, regardless of the cause or form of action and regardless of whether or not any such loss could have been foreseen.

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Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sydney, Paris

Established in the UK in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2025, mainly in China and India, and increasingly in the UK.

Best known today for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India, and the world, Hurun’s two other key series include the Hurun Start-up series and the Hurun 500 series, a ranking of the world’s most valuable companies.

The Hurun Start-up series ranks 3000 of the world’s unicorns and future unicorns with the Hurun Global Unicorns Index and the Hurun Future Unicorns Index, split into Gazelles (most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 3 years) and Cheetahs (most likely to go unicorn within 5 years). Hurun also encourages founders with the Hurun Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s, presenting awards to founders who have built businesses worth US$1mn, US$10mn, US$50mn, and US$100mn, respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun Schools List, ranking the best high schools in the world; the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists; the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today; etc…

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions, brands, and regional governments.

Hurun hosts regular high-profile events in China, India, and the UK, as well as in Paris, New York, LA, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai, and Singapore.

For further information, see www.hurun.net.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Hurun Report

Porsha Pan

Email: porsha.pan@hurun.net

Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2026