# Youngest self-made billionaires in history **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277 "2005-09-18T23:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/1 "2005-09-18T23:35:07Z")
The youngest self-made billionaires right now are 31 and 32 year-old Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who each have 7.2 billion from creating Google. And, if it weren’t for 21 year old Prince Albert von Thurn Taxis in Germany? who inherited 2 billion at age 18 from a deceased father, they’d be the youngest billionaires period. The other day I was looking at Fortune’s list of the 40 richest people under 40 (last year’s list), which only includes those who made their own fortunes and mostly in America. There are literally only a handful of folks who fit this description-American youngsters who, by the time they were 40, had aquired enough money to have a billion or more in their fortune after taxes. A little while ago, I started a thread about how someone had told me that ‘Most of the world’s geniuses discovered what they would by the time they were 20,’ in which a lot of young fortune-makers were brought up. My question: **who were the youngest self-made billionaires in history?** ---
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/2 "2005-09-19T02:36:22Z")
Jeff Skoll, E Bays founder, became a Billionaire at an age less than 40. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/3 "2005-09-19T03:54:15Z")
Wasn’t that guy from MicroSoft one before he turned 30? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/4 "2005-09-19T13:57:49Z")
I don’t know when he completed his first billion, but I would have thought that Virgin founder [Richard Branson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson), born 1950, was one of the younger super-rich people. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/5 "2005-09-19T14:03:07Z")
Are you going to adjust for a billion in today’s dollars? Otherwise you don’t have to go too far back in history, because billionaires haven’t existed for that long. Also, please define “self-made”. I was reading recently about a Saudi who made himself very, very wealthy at a young age. It was not inherited, but he certainly had pretty strong backing and access to capital that most people would not. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/6 "2005-09-19T14:51:01Z")
Dan Snyder, owner of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, sold the Communications/Marketing Company he founded to the Havas Group for $2.3 Billion in 2000 at age 36. When his net worth actually surpassed 1 billion I am not sure – but I think I am SDGQ-safe to say it was before 36 and he belongs on any list of the **youngest self-made billionaires in history?** ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/7 "2005-09-19T16:37:32Z")
Michael Dell was born in 1965 and his current wealth is estimated at $16 billion, but it has almost certainly been over a billion for almost a decade now, I would think. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-self-made-billionaires-in-history/322277/8 "2005-09-19T18:11:39Z")
Since someone else couldn’t remember Bill Gates I don’t feel bad about naming the inventor of the Segway. At an early age (something like 15) he invented that device that sits by every bed in a hospital to dispense drugs. It seems like he should be a good bet to have made a billion early.