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Forbes’ year-end count shows a surge in young self-made billionaires that ties the all-time record set in 2021, and the common thread is obvious: the AI boom has minted fortunes faster than any other industry this cycle. That should make every American who still believes in the market pause and take stock — capitalism works, but when wealth concentrates so quickly in a handful of companies, it raises hard questions about fairness and oversight.
At the very top sits Edwin Chen, a 38-year-old founder of Surge AI, who Forbes estimates is worth roughly $18 billion after building a data-labeling and AI services empire that reportedly pulled in more than a billion dollars in revenue in 2024. This is the new face of America’s technological success: young, brilliant, and immensely wealthy, often before most voters can even pronounce the names of the companies that made them rich.
Forbes counts 71 self-made billionaires under age 40 as of December 2025, with 27 of them newly minted since March — nearly half tied to AI — and a breakdown that shows 48 made their money in tech while 12 came from finance and investing. Roughly 32 of these entrepreneurs are American, eight are women, and collectively they control about $218 billion, which is impressive but still far smaller than the $444 billion held by the comparable 2021 cohort.
Some familiar names appear among the winners and deserve a cold look: the Collison brothers of Stripe sit near the top with fortunes estimated at about $10.1 billion each, and multiple former OpenAI staffers who launched Anthropic feature prominently among the newest billionaires. Whether that success stems purely from superior innovation or from a blend of talent, timing, heavy private capital and regulatory blind spots is worth debating in plain sight.
The bottom of Forbes’ top 40 still starts at a staggering $1.8 billion, with DoorDash’s Andy Fang and Bullish’s Brendan Blumer tied for the last spots, while household names like Taylor Swift and Rihanna, despite their massive success, don’t make the cut. There are also jaw-dropping stories of extreme youth — a 29-year-old and a group of 22-year-olds who hit billionaire status this year — which tells you how quickly the landscape is accelerating and how wildly amplified returns can be in sectors like AI and crypto.
Conservatives should celebrate the entrepreneurial grit behind many of these fortunes; America still rewards risk-takers and problem-solvers, and that culture of innovation is worth defending. But celebration should be paired with scrutiny: when new wealth is generated almost overnight by algorithmic advantages, privileged access to capital, or cozy relationships with influential investors and politicians, citizens have a right to ask whether the system is serving the many or just the few.
If we want more prosperity that reaches Main Street, policymakers must stop treating tech barons like untouchable royalty and start enforcing competition, transparency, and accountability while cutting taxes and red tape that stifle genuine small-business growth. Real patriotism means backing entrepreneurs who build real products and jobs, not bowing to anointments of instant billionaires; the goal should be expanding opportunity so the next wave of innovators emerges from small towns and true merit, not just elite sandboxes.
