The New Billionaires Getting Rich From AI 2024

Forbes

A year and a half after ChatGPT burst onto the scene, the AI gold rush is in full swing. Artificial intelligence has become dinner table talk and turned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman into nearly a household name.  Both new and old tech companies have seen their share prices skyrocket, making the world’s tech tycoons even richer and pushing more than a dozen new AI billionaires onto Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list.  A significant amount of the private company funding has come from the legacy tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, who are hoping to win what has become an AI arms race. For now, there’s no telling if or when the AI bubble may burst and funding may dry up, but it’s starting to show some cracks.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/04/02/the-billionaires-getting-rich-from-ai-2024/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 A year and a half after ChatsGBT burst onto the scene, the AI gold rush is in full swing.

00:06 Artificial intelligence has become dinner table talk, and turned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

00:11 into nearly a household name.

00:13 Both new and old tech companies have seen their share prices skyrocket, making the world's

00:18 tech tycoons even richer, and pushing more than a dozen new AI billionaires onto Forbes'

00:24 World's Billionaires list.

00:26 Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of NVIDIA, is the poster child for all of this.

00:31 NVIDIA's stock price shot up nearly 300% over the past year, landing Huang among the

00:37 world's 20 richest people for the first time.

00:40 Privately owned AI companies have taken off too.

00:43 Last year, AI-centric startups raised nearly $43 billion in funding, amid a slower year

00:48 for venture investments generally.

00:51 OpenAI is the biggest of them, worth some $80 billion-plus after a reported $10 billion

00:56 investment from Microsoft in January 2023.

01:00 Though its CEO Altman has no equity in the company, Forbes estimates he's a billionaire

01:05 due to his network of venture investments.

01:07 A significant amount of the private company funding has come from the legacy tech giants

01:11 like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet, who are hoping to win what has become an AI arms

01:16 race.

01:18 For now, there's no telling if or when the AI bubble may burst, and funding may dry up,

01:23 but it's starting to show some cracks.

01:25 Here are the top 5 billionaires whose companies are tied to AI, and who made Forbes' billionaire

01:30 rankings for the first time this year.

01:33 Coming in at number 5 is Lisa Su.

01:36 Shares of advanced micro-devices have soared more than 60-fold since Su took the reins

01:40 in 2014 and turned the struggling semiconductor firm into an AI darling.

01:45 The daughter of a mathematician and bookkeeper turned entrepreneur, Su was born in Taiwan

01:50 and immigrated to New York City at age 3.

01:52 She studied electrical engineering at MIT because it seemed to be the most difficult

01:56 major.

01:57 Number 4.

01:58 Brett Adcock

01:59 FIGURE, which Adcock founded in 2022, is working to bring an AI-powered, general-purpose humanoid

02:06 to life and insert the robots into the labor force.

02:10 In February, the company raised $675 million from heavyweight investors including Jeff

02:15 Bezos, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI.

02:19 At a $2.6 billion valuation, Adcock, 37, owns an estimated 50%.

02:26 Number 3.

02:27 Shunsaku Sagami

02:28 The 33-year-old's M&A Research Institute plays matchmaker for sellers of small-to-medium-sized

02:34 businesses.

02:35 It uses AI to find potential buyers for these outfits, which are often owned by older people

02:40 grappling with succession.

02:41 Sagami's firm was listed in Tokyo in 2022.

02:46 Number 2.

02:47 Kwok Dong Shin

02:48 Shin runs Hanmi Semiconductor, which his father founded in 1980.

02:52 Hanmi manufactures equipment used in semiconductor packaging, one of the final stages of chip

02:58 production, among its key customers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

03:03 This is booming thanks to the AI craze, with shares up more than 560% over the past year.

03:10 And at number 1 is Charles Liang.

03:13 Liang founded IT infrastructure firm Super Microcomputer in 1993.

03:18 Its servers and storage systems are now in hot demand among AI and cloud computing firms.

03:23 Revenues hit a record $7 billion in fiscal year 2023.

03:27 The stock is up more than 1,100% over the past 12 months, outperforming even its own

03:33 chip-making partners, such as Nvidia, Intel, and AMD.

03:37 Liang's wife, Sarah Liu, is a senior vice president at Super Micro, and also a new

03:42 billionaire.

03:43 [END]

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