Taylor Swift Loses Title of Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire
Forbes has reported that Taylor Swift is no longer the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. This change comes as a surprising twist for the 30-year-old singer, who, interestingly, is known for her hard-partying college dropout lifestyle. Swift’s wealth was reportedly bolstered by the recent boom in artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday, a list highlighting America’s wealthiest self-made women revealed that Swift’s net worth stands at $1.3 billion. She’s a self-described workaholic often seen zipping around on her electric skateboard when she’s not in a driver’s seat.
The title for the youngest female billionaire now belongs to Lucy Guo, who claimed that honor back in April. Guo co-founded Scale AI in 2016 along with Alexandr Wang when she was just 21, and by June, the company was reportedly valued at $25 billion.
Though the tender offer hasn’t been officially confirmed, insiders suggest it might close at that valuation soon.
Guo, the child of Chinese immigrants, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she learned coding in middle school. She left Carnegie Mellon University after winning a $100,000 entrepreneurship scholarship from billionaire Peter Thiel.
Her journey started at Quora in 2015, where she met Wang, and she briefly worked as the first female designer at Snapchat.
At Scale AI, Guo led the operations and production design team, but reports indicate she was let go after some disagreements with Wang about company direction. “We had different views, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in AI,” she shared with a tech news outlet last year.
Despite leaving the company, Guo retained a 5% stake in Scale AI, valued at around $1.2 billion according to Forbes. The company provides essential data for major tech players like OpenAI and Alphabet.
Living in a “fashionable apartment” in Miami and another home in Los Angeles, Guo admits she tends to skip out on cooking, opting instead for meal deliveries via Uber Eats.
She claims to work at least eight hours daily—even while on vacation—and enjoys two workout classes at Barry’s Bootcamp each day, alongside attending techno raves.
“Honestly, I don’t like how I come across online. It’s just not me,” she remarked in a post from 2022.
Previously, she shared about her impressive collection of Pokémon merchandise, which includes slippers, stuffed animals, and Swarovski crystal jewelry.
Currently, Guo is directing a platform called Pass, which she describes as a family-friendly alternative to OnlyFans and Patreon, allowing creators to keep 90% of their earnings. Last year, Pass raised $40 million in a Series A funding round.
However, Guo and Pass are now facing legal scrutiny. A class action lawsuit from February accuses the platform of allowing child pornography. Allegations suggest that Guo bypassed internal safety protocols to accommodate creators aged 15 to 17, exploiting minors in the process.
The lawsuit names Guo as having overridden safety measures for the sake of social media creators, prompting serious accusations against her and the platform.
Just prior to the lawsuit, Pass reportedly banned all minor creators, removing their content entirely.
Guo’s legal team has since sought to dismiss the case, claiming it’s an attempt to target the successful startup and its founder for monetary gain.
“The lawsuit is essentially a coordinated attack intended to damage Pas and Guo’s reputation. These allegations are groundless,” said her attorneys.
In addition to her ventures, Guo has also established a small investment firm called Backend Capital.
In the recent rankings, Guo placed 26th among America’s wealthiest self-made women while Swift is at 21st. Swift, with a current net worth of $1.6 billion, has held her own title of the world’s wealthiest female musician, especially after her notable success with the “ERAS tour” that elevated her status to billionaire last October.
Diane Hendricks ranks as the richest, with a net worth of $22.3 billion, primarily from her company ABC Supply, a leading distributor of roofing, siding, and windows across the U.S.
