FX.co ★ Real beneficiaries of AI hype: billionaires riding data center wave

Dario Amodei, Anthropic

Dario Amodei left OpenAI to found Anthropic in 2021, introducing the Claude model. What sets his product apart is its AI training according to a strict 80-page set of rules, which includes principles like "do not lie, do not harm, do not insult." Corporations such as Amazon and Google pay hefty premiums for this level of safety, as they aim to avoid legal battles and reputational disasters. Today, Anthropic is valued at over $60 billion, and Amodei's net worth has surpassed $4 billion. Using the term "safe" appears to double or triple the price of the product.

Alexandr Wang, Scale AI

At just 19, Alexander Wang dropped out of MIT to start Scale AI, which has now become the world's largest data labeling factory. Millions of people globally label cars in photos, outline tumors in images, and provide correct answers in text data. Without this clean data, models from OpenAI, Meta, and Uber would struggle to train effectively. In 2024, Scale AI raised funds that valued the company at nearly $30 billion. This made 28-year-old Wang the youngest self-made billionaire on the planet.

Michael Intrator, CoreWeave

Michael Intrator co-founded CoreWeave in 2019 with two friends, building it on former mining farms. Today, CoreWeave is the world’s largest provider of powerful Nvidia H100 and Blackwell GPUs. In a bid to secure enough GPUs for model training, OpenAI and Microsoft signed contracts worth $12 billion and $10 billion, respectively. CoreWeave is now valued at over $23 billion, making Intrator a billionaire with a net worth exceeding $3 billion. Renting a Ferrari for the price of a cup of coffee per kilometer is the secret to CoreWeave's success.

Arkady Volozh, Nebius Group

Arkady Volozh, the founder of Yandex, launched Nebius Group after the lifting of EU sanctions. The centerpiece of the new company is a massive 300 MW data center in Finland that sources electricity directly from the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant at just €18 per megawatt-hour, five times cheaper than market rates. Nvidia, European startups, and major corporations are already lining up for its services. Nebius Group is now listed on the Nasdaq exchange and is valued at over $18 billion, with Volozh reclaiming his billionaire status. The company's most straightforward path to success is to provide the most affordable and dependable electricity, a strategy that leads to its domination of the European cloud market for AI.

Jitendra Mohan, Astera Labs

Jitendra Mohan founded Astera Labs in 2017, producing small yet critical retimer chips and optical controllers that connect thousands of GPUs into a supercomputer. Without these chips, modern clusters like Nvidia's GB200 and Blackwell would fail to operate at full speed. An impressive 80% of Astera Labs' revenue comes from orders with Nvidia. Following its IPO in 2024, the company’s stock soared 5.5 times, pushing its valuation past $20 billion, while Mohan's net worth reached $2.8 billion. Thus, the company does not make GPUs or write code; it simply builds the "pipelines" for the new "oil."

Chad Williams, QTS Realty Trust

Chad Williams leads QTS Realty Trust, owned by Blackstone. While everyone chases chips, QTS is constructing massive facilities equipped with power, cooling, and reliable structures. Campuses with 1-2 gigawatts of power are set to open in Virginia and Texas in 2025-2026. They are designed to meet the needs of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, with whom QTS has already signed contracts for 20-30 years. Thanks to that, Williams's personal fortune now stands at $3.5 billion. His formula for success is straightforward. AI can be incredibly intelligent, but it will shut down within minutes if it lacks power, cooling, and a roof overhead.