Palmer Luckey — Oculus to Defense Billionaire at 30

Palmer Luckey built the first Oculus Rift VR headset in his parents' garage at age 18, then sold the company to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, netting an estimated $700 million from the deal. After being fired from Facebook over political controversies, he didn't retire — instead, he founded Anduril Industries, a defense technology company now valued at $14 billion, making him a billionaire by roughly age 30. His career pivot from gaming headsets to autonomous weapons is the most unexpected on this list, and his current net worth is 2x higher than #7 Austin Russell's peak of $2.4 billion. Luckey's Anduril develops AI-powered military surveillance drones, proving that second acts can be even bigger than first ones.