Alexandr Wang
InvestorUnicorn founderCo-founder & CEO at Scale AI
San Francisco, CA
FoundedScale AI$29B · YC
About
Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI at 19 after dropping out of MIT, built it into the data backbone of the AI industry, and in June 2025 Meta paid roughly $14.3 billion for a 49% stake — valuing Scale at ~$29 billion — and hired him as its first Chief AI Officer to run Meta Superintelligence Labs. Born in Los Alamos to two physicist parents at the national lab, he was a USACO finalist and US Physics Team member in high school, coded full-time at Addepar and Quora at 17, and entered Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch, where Scale was born in a pool house with co-founder Lucy Guo. At 24 he was the world's youngest self-made billionaire; he still sits on Scale's board.
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Wang co-founded Scale AI with Lucy Guo in 2016, a company providing data labeling and model evaluation services for AI applications. Co-founded Scale AI in 2016 with Lucy Guo to solve AI's data-labeling bottleneck; Meta's 2025 investment valued it at ~$29B.
- Education
- Studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Studied at Los Alamos High School Dropped out of MIT after his freshman year (2016) to do Y Combinator with Scale.
- Communities
- During the COVID-19 pandemic Wang was roommates with his friend Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Testified before the House Armed Services Committee in July 2023 on AI and national security; Scale is a major DoD AI vendor.
- Awards
- Wang was named to the Time 100 Next list recognizing emerging leaders shaping the future of their fields. Wang became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 24 in 2021. Forbes 30 Under 30 (2018, 2021); TIME 100 Next and TIME100 AI honoree.
- Family
- Wang was born to Chinese immigrant parents who worked as physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Born in 1997 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chinese-immigrant parents who were both physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- More
- Wang qualified for the Math Olympiad Program in 2013, the US Physics Team in 2014, and was a USACO finalist in 2012 and 2013. Wang testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee in July 2023 on U.S. government AI adoption. Competition prodigy: twice a USACO finalist and a national Math Olympiad Program qualifier before college.
Mentioned above: the Y Combinator mafia → · the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mafia →
From Alexandr's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Co-founder & CEO at Scale AIYC S16
Intro paths
Alexandr went through Y Combinator (Summer 2016) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
Their group partner at YC was Jared Friedman, YC Group Partner — the partner who ran Scale AI's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗
In turn, Alexandr can intro founders to Scale AI's investors below.
Scale AI's investors · 32
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Co-founders at Scale AI
Experience
- Scale AICEO and foundercurrent2016 — presentSan Francisco, CA
- Hudson River TradingAlgorithm Developer2016New York City Metropolitan Area
- QuoraTech Lead2014 — 2016Mountain View, CA
- AddeparSoftware Engineer2014Mountain View, CA
Education
- Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBachelor of Science (BS), Mathematics and Computer Science
- Los Alamos High SchoolHigh School
Skills & more
+12 more
ProgrammingPhysicsMySQLAlgorithm DesignCoffeeScriptSQLLinuxHTMLLaTeXCCSSPHPLanguages Chinese · French
From Alexandr's professional profile.
Investments
Board seats
Expedia GroupScale AI
Per curated public sources.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Alexandr WangAlexandr Wang: Building Scale AI, Transforming Work with Agents & Competing With China
Lightcone
Scale AI's Alexandr Wang on Securing U.S. AI Leadership
CSIS AI Policy Podcast · csis.org
Unlocking AI's Future: Alexandr Wang on the Power of Frontier Data
a16z Podcast · a16z.com
An Interview with Scale AI CEO Alex Wang About the Data Pillar for AI
Stratechery · stratechery.com
Frequently asked questions
- Where does Alexandr Wang work?
- Alexandr Wang is Co-founder & CEO at Scale AI.
- What companies did Alexandr Wang found?
- Alexandr Wang founded Scale AI.
Paths to reach Alexandr
People who overlapped with Alexandr at the same organization — a shared school or employer with one of them is a warm way in.
Together at Scale AIAlexandr: Co-founder & CEO
Together at AddeparAlexandr: Software Engineer
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Together at QuoraAlexandr: Tech Lead
Founder mafias
Y Combinator mafia8,759
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 8,752 more
Massachusetts Institute of Technology mafia540
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 533 more
Addepar mafia18
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 11 more
Addepar mafia13
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 6 more
Same school
Also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology1,293
+ 1,287 more
Shared employers
Also worked at Scale AI75
+ 69 more
Also worked at Hudson River Trading7
+ 1 more
Also worked at Quora22
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+ 16 more
Also worked at Addepar27
+ 21 more