{
  "id": 1515878,
  "title": "Billionaire Gen Zer dropped out of high school to launch his start-up at 17—now he’s the richest self-made 25-year-old in the U.K and all of Europe",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/billionaire-gen-zer-dropped-out-of-high-school-to-launch-his-start-up",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-17T15:34:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/billionaire-gen-z-james-dacombe-dropped-out-of-high-school-launch-start-up-17-richest-self-made-25-year-old-in-uk-europe/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "James Dacombe, a 25-year-old British high school dropout, has become Europe's youngest self-made billionaire, amassing a personal net worth of over $1 billion. Dacombe, who launched London-based AI chip-making firm Olix and brain monitoring startup CoMind, now owns an estimated 30% stake in Olix and a 12% stake in CoMind. Both companies have seen significant growth and received substantial investments. Olix saw its value triple since February and raised $312 million in an earlier investment round, while CoMind raised $102.5 million in August last year. Dacombe's success began at the age of 17 when he dropped out of high school to focus on scaling his budding companies. He credits his naivety and willingness to try numerous ideas for his success. Dacombe is one of 11 self-made billionaires under 30 worldwide, with four of them not residing in the U.S.",
  "summary": "James Dacombe, the 25-year-old behind AI chip-making firm Olix and brain monitoring startup CoMind, says being young and “naive” was a career advantage.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}