James Dacombe just became Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire
Dubai: James Dacombe left school as a teenager to build a technology company. Eight years later, the British entrepreneur has become Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire, after his artificial intelligence chip start-up Olix secured a $3.3 billion valuation. The 25-year-old joined the billionaire ranks after London-based Olix raised $312 million in a funding round in early August, more than…
James Dacombe, a British entrepreneur, has become Europe's youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 25, following a $3.3 billion valuation for his AI chip startup Olix. The young tech pioneer left school early to build his business, founding CoMind at 17 and later starting Olix in 2024. After securing a $312 million funding round led by New York investment firm Fundomo, Olix's valuation tripled within six months, reaching $3.3 billion.
Dacombe owns approximately 30% of Olix, making his stake worth around $1 billion, according to Forbes. The funding round also saw participation from Arm, Hudson River Trading, Reed Hastings, and the UK's Sovereign AI Fund. Dacombe's path to success bypassed university education, with a focus on developing specialized processors for AI inference that use photonic interconnects to increase speed and efficiency.
Despite the lack of public disclosure on his net worth, Forbes estimates that Dacombe is one of only 11 self-made billionaires under 30 globally, and four outside the United States.
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