Zuckerberg became a billionaire at 23 thanks to Facebook. On a Zoom call from a wood-paneled room, Russell told me a few weeks after the IPO that he was more excited about the "creation curve" in his career: "It's exciting to be among the Zuckerbergs of this world who have really built out something incredible early on." He owns about one-third of Luminar's outstanding equity and had an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of January 17. Russell is now the youngest self-made billionaire and one of just a dozen living people to become a self-made billionaire before 30, according to Forbes. Russell founded Luminar, which creates lidar sensors that help self-driving cars "see" the road, as a teenager. (Two other analysts have a buy rating on it.) Still, Russell has vaulted into historic, generational wealth. During the mid-December trench in the stock's value, the short-selling firm Citron advised against buying Luminar stock in a tweet, while one analyst has a hold rating on it. The stock has been somewhat volatile since, retreating nearly 50% at one point to $22.87, and trading around $30 as of Friday's close. Four days after the initial public offering, shares of Luminar Technologies jumped as much as 25%, extending a three-day gain of more than 110% to $41.80 per share. He took Luminar public in December through a reverse merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Metropoulos. Today Luminar's 350 employees operate out of a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at its Orlando, Florida, headquarters and a converted tank-repair facility in Palo Alto, California. He was hacking at lidar - an innovative way for cars to see the world in his self-made garage lab in 2012, years before the importance of lidar became clear. Russell's rise reads like a Silicon Valley myth. This story is available exclusively to InsiderĪnd start reading now. Self-studying and tinkering as a teen put Russell, now 25, on the path to dominate autonomous cars, thanks to breakthroughs he made with lidar sensors. He was on the mostly empty trading floor for the virtual IPO ceremony for Luminar, the self-driving-car tech startup that Russell founded at 17, eight years ago. Decked out in his own interpretation of CEO casual - a navy zip-up jacket over a button-down, dark jeans, and matching sneakers - the 6-foot-plus Austin Russell towered over the Nasdaq platform in Times Square, clapping and nodding as he rang the opening bell. On December 3, pink confetti rained down upon yet another tech entrepreneur.
Luminar's future looks promising, but it still has a few obstacles to overcome.He disrupted innovation in an emerging industry, developing nontraditional lidar sensors that help self-driving cars "see" the road.It's a Silicon Valley tale: Russell has built inventions since his childhood and dropped out of Stanford when he got the Thiel Fellowship to work on Luminar.
The 25-year-old's net worth is estimated at $3.2 billion.Luminar CEO Austin Russell is the youngest self-made billionaire after taking his company public via a special-purpose acquisition company merger last month.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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