Austin Russell, at 26, the youngest self-made billionaire and founder of Luminar, a company working on self-driving technology. Photo: Luminar
Elon Musk 2.0? Meet Austin Russell, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, Luminar founder and evangelist for the lidar self-driving car tech that Tesla’s CEO called ‘freaking stupid’
- Elon Musk calls lidar ‘expensive and unnecessary’ but 26-year-old Russell, on Forbes’ ‘40 Under 40’ list, believes otherwise – and has deals with Volvo, Toyota and Intel to prove it
- He left Stanford after getting a US$100,000 fellowship from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and now owns an US$83 million LA mansion next door to Tom Hanks and one in Florida
Austin Russell, at 26, the youngest self-made billionaire and founder of Luminar, a company working on self-driving technology. Photo: Luminar