Millennials are generally accepted as people born between 1981 and 1996, meaning the oldest among this generation are turning 40 this year and the youngest are turning 25.
Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the internet, cell phones and social media. While GenXers like Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar are behind the first wave of internet companies and startups, millennials have founded some of today's biggest, most popular, and highest valued companies on the planet.
Of the world's billionaires, approximately 100 are millennials. Below is a list of the 11 richest millennials in the world… and how they made their billions.
#10. (tie) Joe Gebbia Net Worth: $10 billion
Nathan Blecharczyk Net Worth: $10 billion
Age: 37
Source: Airbnb
Country: USA
The idea for Airbnb came during a San Francisco Tech conference in 2008. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, who were roommates, noticed that hotels were overbooked during the conference. So they purchased three air beds and rented them out to attendees. They soon launched a business which was originally called Air Bed and Breakfast, but eventually became Airbnb. They hired Nathan to code the first version. Today Nathan is the company's Chief Strategy Officer, Joe is the Chief Product Officer and Brian is the CEO.
#9. Brian Chesky Net Worth: $12 billion
Age: 39
Source: Airbnb
Country: USA
Brian Chesky (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
#8. Eduardo Saverin Net Worth: $12 billion
Age: 39
Source: Facebook
Country: Brazil
Eduardo Saverin met Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. They co-founded The Facebook in 2004. As co-founder, Saverin held the positions of chief financial officer and business manager. In September 2011, Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship. As a result, he was able to avoid an estimated $700 million in capital gains taxes. He has been a resident of Singapore since 2009 and stated that he renounced his U.S. citizenship because he wanted to live and work in Singapore. He denied accusations that he left the U.S. to avoid paying taxes.
#7. Cheng Yixiao Net Worth: $14 billion
Age: 37
Source: Kuaishou
Country: China
Cheng Yixiao is the co-founder of the short video platform, Kuaishou. He started his career as a software engineer at HP, where he met his Kuaishou co-founder, Yang Yuanxi. They founded GIF Kuaishou in 2011. Two years later they met Su Hua and pivoted the company into a video sharing app.
#6. Su Hua Net Worth: $18 billion
Age: 39
Source: Kuaishou
Country: China
Su Hua worked at Google and Baidu before meeting Cheng Yixiao and Yang Yuanxi and convincing them to turn their GIF sharing app into what is now the most downloaded video-sharing app and live-stream platforms in the world.
#5. Lukas Walton Net Worth: $20 billion
Age: 34
Source: Inheritance, Walmart
Country: USA
Lukas Walton is the grandson of Walmart founder, Sam Walton, and the only child of Christy and John Walton. His father John was killed in a plane crash in 2005, and left one-third of his $17 billion fortune to Lukas. He owns a 4% stake in Walmart.
#4. Dustin Moskovitz Net Worth: $21 billion
Age: 36
Source: Facebook
Country: USA
Dustin Moskovitz is a co-founder of Facebook. Moskovitz met Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. He dropped out to move to California and work on Facebook full-time with Zuckerberg. Moskovitz was instrumental in designing the Facebook that everyone knows today.
#3. Yang Huiyan Net Worth: $24 billion
Age: 39
Source: Country Garden
Country: China
Yang Huiyan owns a 57% stake in the real estate developer Country Garden Holdings. The company was co-founded by Yang's father in 1992 and she owns her stake through three holding companies in the British Virgin Islands.
#2. Zhang Yiming Net Worth: $44 billion
Age: 37
Source: TikTok
Country: China
Zhang Yiming is the founder and CEO of ByteDance which is a Chinese internet technology company. The company's flagship product is TikTok, a Chinese content platform. ByteDance was founded in 2012. By 2019 it had more than 800 million daily users and a valuation of $75 billion.
#1. Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth: $122 billion
Age: 36
Source: Facebook
Country: USA
Mark Zuckerberg founded The Facebook in 2004 from his dorm room at Harvard. He dropped out after his sophomore year to move to Palo Alto, California to focus on Facebook. When he was 22, he turned down a $1 billion offer from Yahoo to buy Facebook.
