Austin Russell, founder and CEO of Lumina, who was dubbed the “genius CEO” of the self-driving industry and emerged as the “youngest self-made billionaire” selected by Forbes at the age of 25, became the new owner of Forbes, an American economic magazine with a 106-year history. Forbes announced on the 12th (local time) that CEO Russell acquired an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings, the parent company of Forbes, and became the largest shareholder.
The 28-year-old CEO is a genius who memorized the periodic table of elements at the age of two and registered his first patent for a sprinkler water recycling system at the age of 15. After entering the Department of Physics at the prestigious Stanford University at the age of 17, he became interested in autonomous vehicle sensor technology using lasers and founded Lumina, an autonomous vehicle parts company, in the same year.
At the time, CEO Russell dropped out of Stanford University after three months of admission. It was to receive the Thiel Scholarship, which provides $100,000 (approximately 103 million won) to American venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who drops out of college and starts a business.
CEO Russell is considered a person who changed the market by leading the commercialization of ‘LiDAR’, a key component of autonomous vehicle sensors. LIDAR is a system that identifies the position, distance, and motion characteristics of an object by shining a laser on the target. In the past, it was difficult to use for self-driving cars because it could only track short distances due to technical limitations. However, Russell has increased the tracking distance of lidar to a maximum of 250 m, enabling it to be introduced to autonomous vehicles. He listed Lumina on Nasdaq in December 2020 and rose to the ranks of billionaires at once.
Right after the news of CEO Russell’s takeover, Forbes’ corporate value is estimated at about 800 million dollars (1.752 trillion won). He is not involved in Forbes’ day-to-day operations, but will join a new board composed of media, technology and artificial intelligence experts.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.