A look behind the statistics of the 2026 Under 30 List—from $3.8 billion in funding to 200 million fans online.
By Alexandra York and Zoya Hasan
The 2026 Under 30 class marks the list’s 15th year. That’s 15 years spotlighting the country’s brightest young entrepreneurs. Over that time, the Under 30 list has proven to be the farm league for America’s next generation of business leaders—in fact, 46 Under 30 honorees have gone on to become Forbes billionaires. Much has changed since Forbes’ first Under 30 list debuted in January 2012. The number of categories has expanded as new industries flourish. The funding and revenue numbers generated by listers have soared—and the competition has grown fiercer than ever. (Each year, more than 10,000 people apply, and the bar to make the list continues to rise).
Despite sweeping change, the requirements to be a pioneering entrepreneur remain constant: imagination, intelligence, and plenty of grit. The honorees on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 have these traits in spades and are using them to shape the future. And now, in the midst of an AI revolution, they’re leading the charge. The new class is using machine learning to do everything from building robotic astronauts to creating powerful tools that let anyone become a genius coder or master artist.
To create the Under 30 list, Forbes reporters harness their authoritative reporting, robust sources, and independent experts. Judges this year include pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo, actress Yara Shahidi, billionaire entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, AI50 startup founder May Habib and basketball player Kyle Kuzma. More than 10,000 candidates were evaluated on their impact, financials and potential to scale. The result? 600 young leaders across 20 industries who are impacting both culture and economies.
Take Jesse Zhang, the founder of the 1.5 billion (valuation) Decagon. He’s raised $255 million from investors to sell AI agents that can handle customer service tasks for consumer companies like Duolingo and ClassPass. “Whenever there’s a big technology shift, it just opens the door for a lot of companies,” says Zhang. “But the number of great ideas is usually pretty small. Your job as a founder is to try to figure out what those are.”
Under 30 honorees are reinventing old industries, too. Take 27-year-olds Eric Herrera and Jesse Evans, who are manufacturing proteins that can dissolve rocks to make mining less invasive and harmful. Katherine Sizov, 29, is tapping AI and smart sensors to prevent food waste and ensure the ripest produce hits the grocery stores. Jonathan Lord, 29, is building electric boat engines—think the Tesla of the sea.
Entertainers are proving entrepreneurial, too. Claudia Sulewski, 29, turned her YouTube channel into a body-care brand that’s raking in an estimated $15 million this year. Alex Warren, 25, transformed a gig at social media creator collective Hype House into a chart-topping song (his hit Ordinary has more than 5 billion global streams) and a U.S. arena tour. Meanwhile, Under 30 alumna Lili Reinhart—whose big break came with CW’s teen hit Riverdale—has turned her growing movie stardom (and her 30 million social media followers) into a fast-growing skincare company, Personal Day, which brought in an estimated $10 million in its first calendar year.
Over the fifteen Under 30 lists Forbes has published, it’s become a benchmark of success for today’s young leaders. These Under 30 honorees are backed by the biggest funders (this year’s class counts more than $3.8 billion in cumulative investments), have global influence (200 million social followers), and continue to invent the ideas that will change the world. Here’s a look at the biggest numbers defining the Under 30 class of 2026.
Read the full 2026 30 Under 30 list here. And for more on how we make the list, check out our methodology here.
30 Under 30 2026 By The Numbers
TOTAL FUNDING
$3.8 BILLION+
More than $3.8 billion raised in funding–up from $3.6 billion last year.
AVERAGE AGE
27
The average age of Under 30s held constant this year, and the youngest is 17-year-old Momin Ahmed from the Education list. He’s building Model U.N. Academy—a platform that’s helped more than 17,000 students in more than 100 countries gain access to Model U.N. guides and resources.
SELF-IDENTIFY AS PERSON OF COLOR
41%
41% of the individuals that appear on this year’s list self identify as a person of color.
IMMIGRANTS
22%
The immigrants on our list hail from countries including China, India, Mexico, Korea and Australia, among other home countries.
GENDER
42% FEMALE or NON-BINARY, 58% MALE
This list was made up of 41% female, 58% male, and just over 1% non-binary.
GEN Z (27 OR YOUNGER)
70%
7 in 10 of this year’s class are members of Gen Z—born 1997 or later. This is up from 50% last year, and will be the final list with any millennials listed.
(CO) FOUNDERS
68%
The majority (68%) of listmakers are founders or cofounders of a company. Many of the rest are actors, musicians or creators that are building their own brands.
TOP CITIES
New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago
These are the top cities in which listers reside, in order of popularity. Austin was bumped off after making the ranks last year. California, New York and Texas are the most popular states.
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