Outlook Business Desk
Alexandr Wang is the CEO of Scale AI, a company he co-founded in 2016 to help businesses harness raw data for AI and machine learning. He was born in January 1997 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to physicist parents who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Wang founded Scale AI at 19, leveraging artificial intelligence to process and interpret complex data. Scale AI is a U.S.-based data annotation company that supplies labeled data for training AI models.
In May 2024, Scale secured $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Accel, bringing its valuation to $14 billion.
Forbes estimates Wang’s net worth at $1 billion, primarily driven by his stake in Scale AI. At 26, he remains a significant figure in the AI industry and ranks 2,534th on Forbes’ list of global billionaires. Wang became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 25 in 2022.
At 17, Wang was already a software engineer at Addepar. Later in 2014, he joined Quora as a Tech and Speed Lead. He briefly studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the MIT before leaving at 19 to join the Y Combinator accelerator and launch Scale AI.
Scale AI has played a key role in real-world applications, such as assessing damage in the Ukraine war. The company also secured $110 million in contracts with the U.S. Air Force and Army, showcasing AI's impact on national security and defense.
Wang's impact on technology and AI has garnered significant recognition. He was included in Forbes' 30 Under 30 lists in 2018 and 2021. In 2021, he was also featured in Time 100 Next and the Time100 AI list.
He is frequently likened to Elon Musk for his pioneering impact on the tech industry. Reports indicate that OpenAI and Microsoft actively seek his expertise due to his profound knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning.