Youngest Billionaires In The World 2023

According to Forbes' most recent list of the world's richest people, the average age of a billionaire is 65, while the oldest is insurance mogul George Joseph, who is 101. Yet being elderly is not a prerequisite for accumulating significant money. Actually, only 15 people under the age of 30 who can claim to have made three comma fortunes.

Clemente Del Vecchio and Kim Jung-youn, who are both under 20, are the youngest of this mostly fortunate group. Leonardo Del Vecchio and Kim Jung-ju, the prosperous fathers of the two teenagers, both passed away in 2022 and left them shares in their respective companies. The wealth of Del Vecchio, who will be 19 in May, comes from a shareholding in his father's holding company Delfin, which has a part in eyewear manufacturer Luxottica . Nothing is known about the young heir, who also makes her acting debut with her stepmother, six siblings, two of whom are also young adults. Kim, whose fortune is in the Japanese-South Korean online gaming behemoth Nexon, is even less well known. She and her sister Jung-min are thought to be 19 and 21, respectively, although a company representative declined to comment on that, and Forbes was unable to find any primary sources that might verify their birthdates.

Red Bull heir Mark Mateschitz, whose father Dietrich passed away in October 2022, is by far the wealthiest person under 30. He is nearly 10 times as wealthy as the next-richest young billionaires, Clemente Del Vecchio and his two brothers, who are estimated to be worth $34.7 billion. Of the 150 additions to the 2023 billionaires list, Mateschitz is the richest.

Altogether, 11 of these 15 received their wealth through inheritance. Just four are self-made entrepreneurs. It includes Palmer Luckey, who sold his first startup to Facebook and is now back with a thriving defense tech company, and Ben Francis, who established sportswear manufacturer Gymshark in 2012 when he was just 19 years old. Both have just joined the ranks of the billionaires.

These 15 youngsters now collectively have a value of $64 billion, $10 billion more than they had in 2022. This is largely because of Mateschitz's enormous inheritance. Even so, it's still unusual to acquire that much money at such a young age: Combined, this exclusive group accounts for barely 0.6% of the 2,640 billionaires in the world.

Youngest Billionaires In The World 2023

1. Francis Ben

Age: 30
Citizenship: U.K.
Source of Wealth: Gymshark
Net Worth: $1.2 Billion

At the age of 19, Francis founded the sportswear brand Gymshark while juggling college coursework and pizza delivery. In Birmingham, England, he assembled the basic parts in his parent's garage. He then employed guerrilla marketing to infiltrate the fitness gear market by enlisting the aid of weightlifting influencers. In 2021, Gymshark made more than $500 million in revenue. Francis still controls 70% of the company despite selling 21% of it to private equity firm General Atlantic in 2020 for $300 million. The most recent action of the unicorn? Gymshark London, a physical location that launched in 2022, provides exercise sessions as well as the company's recognizable clothing.

2. Palmer Luckey

Age: 30
Citizenship: U.S.
Source of Wealth: Virtual reality, defense contracting
Net Worth: $1.7 Billion

The erstwhile youthful genius started the VR headset manufacturer Oculus, sold it to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion, and then started making weapons. His defense technology company Anduril, which wants to provide drones and surveillance products for the DoD and has systems in place in Ukraine, raised $1.5 billion at a $8.5 billion value in December.

3. Mark Mateschitz

Age: 30
Citizenship: Austria
Source of Wealth: Red Bull
Net Worth: $34.7 Billion

In October, with the death of his father, Red Bull cofounder Dietrich Mateschitz, he got 49% of the business. He soon resigned from his post as its head of organics in order to "concentrate on his function as a shareholder."

4. Michal Strnad

Age: 30
Citizenship: Czech Republic
Source of Wealth: Weapons
Net Worth: $2 Billion

His Czechoslovak Group has helped double revenues to $620 million in the first half of 2022 since it is one of the largest providers of ammunition, ground equipment, and artillery equipment to the Ukrainian army. In 2018, he fully assumed management of the company his father had started.

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5. Gustav Magnar Witzoe

Age: 29
Citizenship: Norway
Source of Wealth: Fish farming
Net Worth: $2.7 Billion

Although having no operational responsibilities, he inherited roughly half of the salmon farming company SalMar ASA from his father, Gustav Witzoe. Instead, he is presenting himself as an investor in real estate and tech startups.

6. Ryan Breslow

Age: 28
Citizenship: U.S.
Source of Wealth: E-commerce
Net Worth: $1.1 Billion

Four years apart, the Stanford dropout launched three startups: Bolt, which propelled him to stardom, Eco, and Love, his business in 2022. In payment processing, personal finance, and drugs, respectively, they seek to do away with intermediaries. A legal dispute over a rogue engineer who is accused of stealing two-thirds of the project's initial funds instead of its planned debut this year was the result of a fourth, fledgling cryptocurrency project called Movement DAO. The engineer's counsel called the accusations "frivolous" and rejected them.

7. Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio

Age: 27
Citizenship: Italy
Source of Wealth: Luxottica
Net Worth: $3.5 Billion

When Eyewear tycoon Leonardo Del Vecchio passed away in June 2022, he was the second-richest person in Italy. He left his widow, Nicoletta Zampillo, six children, and one stepchild 12.5% of his fortune, which was primarily made up of shares of the largest eyewear company in the world, Essilor-Luxottica, which is publicly traded. Head of strategy at Luxottica, Leonardo Maria is his father's only child with Zampillo.

8. Katharina Andresen

Age: 27
Citizenship: Norway
Source of Wealth: Investments
Net Worth: $1.5 Billion

Katharina is a sixth-generation owner of Ferd, the more than $4 billion (equity) investment company that their father, Johan, manages, together with her younger sister Alexandra. Katharina works as a sustainability officer for a building company in Oslo.

9. Wang Zelong

Age: 26
Citizenship: China
Source of Wealth: Pigment production
Net Worth: $1.4 Billion

Wang's wealth is derived from a shareholding in the titanium dioxide chemical company CNNC Hua Yuan, which is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and is used to make white pigment for items like paint and paper.

10. Alexandra Andresen

Age: 26
Citizenship: Norway
Source of Wealth: Investments
Net Worth: $1.5 Billion

Each of Alexandra's and her sister Katharina's shares in the investment company Ferd is 42%. She controls the reins, not Ferd, who is holding the reins: Alexandra oversees a horse breeding and training facility and is a three-time junior Norwegian dressage champion.

11. Luca Del Vecchio

Age: 21
Citizenship: Italy
Source of Wealth: Luxottica
Net Worth: $3.5 Billion

Luca is not known to have a role at the eyewear company. He is one of two children who were born to Leonardo Del Vecchio and Sabrina Grossi, a former Luxottica board member and the former head of investor relations.

12. Kim Jung-min

Age: 21
Citizenship: South Korea
Source of Wealth: Online gaming
Net Worth: $1.7 Billion

After their father Kim Jung-ju passed away in February 2022, Jung-min and her younger sister Kim Jung-youn shared around a third of their family's assets, including a 15% interest in gaming company Nexon. In 1994, Jung-ju created Nexon, a company well known for its massively multiplayer online games such as MapleStory and Kingdom of the Winds.

13. Kevin David Lehmann

Age: 20
Citizenship: Germany
Source of Wealth: Drugstores
Net Worth: $2.3 Billion

When he was 14 years old, his father left him half of the German pharmacy company dm-drogerie markt. Until his 18th birthday, when he became a millionaire, it was held in trust. Lehmann and his father are not active in the $14 billion (sales) business's operational areas.

14. Kim Jung-min

Age: 19
Citizenship: South Korea
Source of Wealth: Online gaming
Net Worth: $1.7 Billion

Kim Jung-youn, one of the two teenage billionaires on this year's list, inherited a share in the holding company of her late father, which in turn owns around half of the enormous online gaming company Nexon. Both Kim sisters maintain a low profile and are not thought to have a significant part in the business. we is unsure about her exact age.

15. Clemente Del Vecchio

Age: 18
Citizenship: Italy
Source of Wealth: Luxottica
Net Worth: $3.5 Billion

Leonardo Del Vecchio passed away in June 2022, leaving the world with a new young billionaire. The youngest Del Vecchio heir, Clemente, is not known to hold a position at Luxottica, which also controls Sunglass Hut, Ray-Ban, and Oakley.

Conclusion

The world's youngest billionaires are a diverse group of individuals who have made their fortunes through inheritance, entrepreneurship, and innovative technologies. While some, like Kevin David Lehmann and the Andresen sisters, inherited their wealth from family businesses, others, like Palmer Luckey and Ryan Breslow, made their fortunes through tech startups. Still, others, like Gustav Magnar Witzoe and Wang Zelong, inherited stakes in established companies in industries such as salmon farming and real estate. The youngest billionaires in the world demonstrate the power of innovation, hard work, and, in some cases, good fortune in achieving immense wealth at a young age.