Building a fortune usually takes years, even a lifetime. The numbers speak for themselves: Nearly three-quarters of the world’s billionaires are between the ages of 50 and 79. Just 12% are under 50.
The rarest of all are those who manage to achieve billionaire status by the age of 30; this year there are just 21 of those flush youngsters on the Forbes list. Unsurprisingly, all but two of them inherited their wealth.
Top 5 youngest billionaires in the world:
Sophie Luise Fielmann
Sophie and her older brother Marc inherited much of their late father Günther Fielmann’s fortune when he died last year. Fielmann founded Fielmann AG in 1972 with the goal of bringing affordable eyeglasses to Germany.
Marc co-led the company with his dad starting in 2018 and fully took over the following year. Sophie owns a third of its stock but has no role at the firm.
Katharina Andresen
Andresen’s fortune originally stems from the 150-year-old cigarette empire her father sold in 2005. After the sale, the family refocused on its investment firm Ferd, which has portfolios in real estate, finance and a variety of private Nordic companies. Like her sister, she owns a 42% stake in Ferd and sits on the board.
Ed Craven
Craven and Bijan Tehrani cofounded the online casino Stake.com, which managed to generate $4.7 billion last year even though crypto gambling is generally unavailable in the UK, U.S. and parts of Europe.
Stake’s popularity has blown up since the pandemic thanks in part to livestreamers filming themselves gambling on it. Now the company says it’s involved in some 2% to 4% of all Bitcoin transactions.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio
After his father’s death in 2022, Del Vecchio and each of his six half-siblings and his mother—inherited a 12.5% stake in the family holding company that owns nearly a third of EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyeglasses business. Del Vecchio is EssilorLuxottica’s chief strategy officer as well as the president of the iconic brand Ray-Ban.
Alexandra Andresen
Andresen sits with her sister on the board of the investment company Ferd, which is based in the Oslo suburb of Bærum, and also owns a 42% stake. She is a three-time junior Norwegian champion in dressage horse riding but no longer competes due to spinal health problems. She’s still heavily involved with horses and both owns and runs the Oslo horse-breeding stable Andresen Dressage.
