Meet The Forbes Under 30 Class Of 2025: By The Numbers

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Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, by the numbers meet the Forbes under 30 class of 2025. Our 14th

00:08annual Forbes 30 under 30 list was revealed earlier this week. For the

00:13visionaries featured in this 30 under 30 class, the only constant is change and

00:18this year we changed the way we list them as well. Every company is a tech

00:22company now, so we swapped out the enterprise and consumer tech categories

00:26for AI and transportation. What hasn't changed is the outsize influence of

00:312025's under 30 honorees. They're inventing new tech to treat tumors,

00:36expanding access to electric vehicle charging, making credit cards more secure,

00:41and even dreaming of reflective satellites that could bring the Sun out

00:45at night. To identify this standout group, Forbes editors worked with expert judges

00:50including musician Big Sean, journalist Kara Swisher, America's richest

00:55self-made woman Dianne Hendricks, ballerina Misty Copeland, and billionaire

01:00venture capitalist Jim Breyer, among others, to review more than 10,000

01:04candidates, evaluating them on impact, financials, and creativity. The result? 600

01:11young leaders steering the future of business and culture in 20 different

01:14industries. Take 28 year old Aiden Gomez, who's building Cohere, a 940 million

01:21dollar backed startup that makes custom gen AI chatbots for companies like tech

01:26giant Oracle and unicorn Notion. Demi Guo, who is 26 years old, is another AI

01:32standout. Her platform, Pika, can turn a simple text prompt or still photo into a

01:38film. Think special effects, explosions, animated characters, and more. Pika is

01:44valued at 470 million dollars. Meanwhile, honorees like social media stars Drew

01:50Afuolo, who is 29 years old, and Bobby Althoff, who is 27, both turned TikTok

01:56popularity into digital media empires spanning podcasts, YouTube channels, and

02:02in Afuolo's case, a best-selling memoir. Other 2025 listers are selling out shows

02:08across the globe. Grammy-nominated Noah Khan, who is 27 years old, brought 700,000

02:15fans to stadiums like Boston's Fenway Park in 2024. And country breakout star

02:20Shabozie, who is 29 years old, will take his cowboy boots across the pond for a

02:25European leg after closing his first ever North American tour this fall. This

02:31year's cohort is backed by the biggest funders. They have 3.6 billion dollars in

02:35cumulative investments and counts fans across the globe, 300 million plus social

02:41media followers who are following along with their founder journey. Many are

02:45embracing new AI tools, even artists, to revolutionize how they create and work.

02:50As the world continues to rapidly change, the 2025 under-30 class sees its youth

02:57as a superpower, bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to spark the

03:01future in which they want to live. Here are some facts and figures. The average

03:06age of under-30s held constant this year at 27 years old. The youngest is 17 year

03:12old Mason Thames from the Hollywood and Entertainment list. He's an actor known

03:16for credits like Universal's The Black Phone, Netflix's Incoming, and Monster

03:21Summer. Almost half of the individuals that appear on this year's list self

03:26identify as a person of color, 46% up from 43% last year. 23% of

03:33listers are immigrants, hailing from countries including China, Turkey, India

03:38and Pakistan. Just about half this year's class are members of Gen Z. This is the

03:44largest contingent of Gen Z to ever appear on the list, up from 36% last year

03:49and 22% the year before. The majority of list makers, 69%, are founders or

03:56co-founders of a company, up from 67% last year. Many of the rest are actors,

04:01musicians, or creators that are building their own brands. The top cities in which

04:07listers reside, in order of popularity, are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles,

04:13Austin, and Boston. Austin joined the ranks of top five cities this year. Miami,

04:19Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, and Atlanta make up the rest of the top ten. For full

04:26coverage and to see the whole 30 under 30 class of 2025, as well as see our

04:31Inside the List Talks video, check out Alexandra York and Zoya Hassan's piece

04:36on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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