Published: May 15, 2026 at 7:32 am
AI founders feature throughout The Sunday Times 40 Under 40 Rich List for 2026.
This year’s 40 Under 40 list showcases British talent across fashion, business and technology as well as music, sport and entertainment – and a third of them built their fortunes through AI startups.
For example, ElevenLabs, the synthetic voice developer backed by the Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey, is now worth £8.1 billion — three times as much as 12 months ago — pushing the Polish techies Piotr Dabkowski and Mati Staniszewski, both 31, into joint third.
Making the top 10 are Alex Kendall, founder of driverless car tech firm Wayve, which is worth $9bn after raising more than $1.5bn recently and this week signed a Government contract; and Herman Narula, founder of virtual worlds firm Improbable.
Wayve co-founder Amar Shah is 18th, while Victor Riparbelli and Steffen Tjerrild of Synthesia are 25th. Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of FinTech Cleo, features in 30th.
Daniel Knight, founder and game director of Southampton-based Kinetic Games – the independent studio behind the hit horror game Phasmophobia – and now Kinetic Publishing is worth £160m.
Guest BBC Dragon Susie Ma of Tropic Skincare re-enters the list with a £100m fortune.