Edwin Chen (born 1987 or 1988) is an American billionaire businessman, and the founder and CEO of Surge AI.
Chen is the son of Taiwanese immigrants to the US, and worked at the family restaurant before his boarding school education as a teenager.[2] He studied mathematics, computer science and linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[3]
He worked as a machine-learning engineer at Facebook, Dropbox, Google, Twitter, and Peter Thiel‘s hedge fund Clarium, before starting Surge AI.[1]
As of September 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$18 billion, because of his c.75% stake in Surge AI.[4] He lives in Manhattan, New York City.[5]
References
- ^ a b “Edwin Chen”. Forbes. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- ^ “Edwin Chen”. Bloomberg LP. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- ^ VnExpress. “Meet Edwin Chen, MIT graduate and youngest billionaire on Forbes’ 400 richest Americans list – VnExpress International”. VnExpress International – Latest news, business, travel and analysis from Vietnam. Archived from the original on October 11, 2025. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- ^ Gallagher, Thomas. “Marc Lore, Edwin Chen, Adam Foroughi And The 11 Other New Members Of The Forbes 400”. Forbes. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- ^ Liu, Phoebe. “How The Low-Key Billionaire Behind Surge Is Beating Out Rivals Like Scale AI”. Forbes. Retrieved May 28, 2026.