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Alexandr Wang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexandr Wang
Wang in April 2025
Born1997 (age 27–28)[1]
Los Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (dropped out)
TitleFounder and CEO of Scale AI

Alexandr Wang (born 1997) is the co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, an artificial intelligence company that provides data labeling and model evaluation services to develop applications for artificial intelligence.[2][3] At age 24 in 2021, he became the youngest self-made billionaire in the world at that time.[4][5][6] Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.6 billion as of April 2025.[7]

Early life and education

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Wang was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He is the son of Chinese immigrants who worked as physicists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where nuclear weapons were first developed.[8] Wang was passionate about math and computer programming since childhood. He qualified for the Math Olympiad Program in 2013, the US Physics Team in 2014, and was a USACO finalist in 2012 and 2013.[9] He was educated at Los Alamos High School after which he moved to Silicon Valley to become a software engineer at wealth management company, Addepar.[10][11] During his teens, Wang worked for Quora as a software programmer.[12] He briefly attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had a stint as an algorithm developer at the high-frequency trading firm Hudson River Trading before he dropped out to co-found Scale AI in 2016.[13][14]

Career

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In 2016, Wang co-founded Scale AI, an artificial intelligence company that provides data labeling and model evaluation services to develop applications for artificial intelligence. Former Amazon executive Jeff Wilke served as an advisor to Wang.[15] In 2021, the company's valuation hit $7.3 billion, briefly giving Wang a $1 billion net worth, as he owned 15% of the company.[3][16] Scale AI has received defense contracts from the United States Armed Forces[17][18] and has been tapped by the Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to test and evaluate the safety and reliability of large language models for military planning and decision-making.[19]

Wang joined the board of Expedia Group in 2023.[20]

In July 2023, Wang testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing, speaking on the challenges and potential solutions that the U.S. government faced in adopting artificial intelligence.[21]

In June 2024, Wang announced that Scale AI formalized a merit, excellence, and intelligence (MEI) hiring policy, stating: "We believe that people should be judged by the content of their character — and, as colleagues, be additionally judged by their talent, skills, and work ethic." MEI is a similar yet opposing practice to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).[22]

In January 2025, Wang was among a group of tech-based founders and chief executive officers at the second inauguration of Donald Trump.[23] He also wrote a letter directly addressed to President Trump, declaring that "America must win the AI war".[24] Later in the month, Wang spoke at the World Economic Forum, highlighting the artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, specifically surrounding the capabilities of DeepSeek.[25]

In February 2025, Wang met with multiple world leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron,[26] and United States House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson, who also oversees the House Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence,[27] speaking to them about global cooperation surrounding artificial intelligence.[26]

Personal life

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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang was roommates with his friend Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI.[23]

Recognition

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In 2018, Wang was named to Forbes's 30 Under 30 list in the Enterprise Technology category.[28] He would later be named to the same list in 2021.[29] He was also named to the Time 100 Next and Time 100 AI list, which recognizes emerging leaders who are shaping the future of their fields.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Chan, Park. "Alexandr Wang 你要知的8件事！創業6年25歲身家達10億美元成最年輕白手起家富翁". www.esquirehk.com.
  2. ^ "Alexandr Wang". Forbes. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  3. ^ a b East, Forbes Middle. "Here's How This Young Self-Made Billionaire Built A $7.3B AI Unicorn". Forbes ME. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  4. ^ Sternlicht, Alexandra. "There's A New Youngest Self-Made Billionaire, And He Got Rich Working With The Government". Forbes. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "TIME100 AI 2023: Alexandr Wang". Time. September 7, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  6. ^ Tan, Rebecca (August 28, 2023). "Behind the AI boom, an army of overseas workers in 'digital sweatshops'". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  7. ^ "This AI Founder Has Unseated Taylor Swift As The World's Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  8. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "How Alexandr Wang Turned An Army Of Clickworkers Into A $7.3 Billion AI Unicorn". Forbes. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  9. ^ "Alexandr Wang former UNM-PNM Math Contest Winner and CEO of Scale AI at 25 years old | Department of Mathematics & Statistics". math.unm.edu. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  10. ^ Clark, Carol A. (May 22, 2014). "Los Alamos High School's Alexandr Wang Named to 2014 United States Physics Team!". Los Alamos Daily Post.
  11. ^ Weinberg, Cory (September 16, 2022). "Fame, Feud and Fortune: Inside Billionaire Alexandr Wang's Relentless Rise in Silicon Valley". The Information.
  12. ^ "The Next Elon Musk? This 26-Year-Old College Dropout Built A $7.3 Billion Tech Empire To Become The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire". Yahoo Finance. July 28, 2023.
  13. ^ Li, Steven. "How The 22-Year-Old Founder Of Scale AI Built A Billion-Dollar Business". Forbes. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  14. ^ Crook, Jordan (April 7, 2021). "Accel's Dan Levine and Scale's Alexandr Wang will chat about how to create a category on Extra Crunch Live". TechCrunch.
  15. ^ Soper, Taylor (April 13, 2021). "Tech Moves: Ex-Amazon leader Jeff Wilke joins Scale AI as advisor to CEO; Skilljar and Auth0 hire execs; T-Mobile board shuffle". GeekWire.
  16. ^ Loten, Angus (July 12, 2021). "Scale AI's Rapid Growth Reflects Widening Demand for Smart Software". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  17. ^ "Feature interview: Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang - First Move with Julia Chatterley - Podcast on CNN Audio". CNN. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  18. ^ De Vynck, Gerrit (October 22, 2023). "Some tech leaders fear AI. ScaleAI is selling it to the military". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  19. ^ Vincent, Brandi (February 20, 2024). "Scale AI to set the Pentagon's path for testing and evaluating large language models". DefenseScoop.
  20. ^ Bishop, Todd (June 5, 2023). "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman leaves Expedia Group board 'to focus on his other business interests'". GeekWire.
  21. ^ Vincent, Brandi (July 18, 2023). "In wake of Project Maven, Pentagon urged to launch new 'pathfinder' initiatives to accelerate AI". DefenseScoop.
  22. ^ Pandolfo, Chris (June 15, 2024). "Scale AI CEO explains why his company will hire for MEI, not DEI: 'Merit, excellence and intelligence'". Fox Business.
  23. ^ a b Albergotti, Reed (January 21, 2025). "Scale AI CEO to Trump: 'America must win the AI war". Semafor.
  24. ^ Blum, Sam (January 21, 2025). "Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang Writes Letter to President Trump: 'America Must Win the AI War'". Inc Magazine.
  25. ^ Field, Hayden (January 23, 2025). "Scale AI CEO says China has quickly caught the U.S. with the DeepSeek open-source model". NBC 4 Los Angeles.
  26. ^ a b Curi, Maria (February 12, 2025). "Scoop: Scale AI CEO meets with UK prime minister". Axios.
  27. ^ Blum, Sam (February 5, 2025). "Scale AI's CEO Grabbed a Meeting With House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Tech Leader Remains Intently Focused on the 'AI War' With China". Inc. Magazine.
  28. ^ Popkin, Helen A. S.; Marwan, Samar. "30 Under 30 2018: Enterprise Technology". Forbes.
  29. ^ Popkin, Helen A. S. "30 Under 30 In Enterprise Tech: Reinventing Business With Artificial Intelligence". Forbes. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
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