Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old Meta AI chief and former CEO of Scale AI, has recently advised teenagers to dedicate their time to mastering AI coding tools, also known as "vibe coding". Wang believes that this skill will provide them with a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Born in January 1997 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chinese immigrant parents who were physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Wang displayed a passion for math and computer programming from a young age. He excelled in national math and coding competitions in his childhood. Wang's early achievements include qualifying for the Math Olympiad Program in 2013, the US Physics Team in 2014, and being a USACO finalist in 2012 and 2013. He attended Los Alamos High School and briefly studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). However, Wang dropped out of MIT after his freshman year to pursue his entrepreneurial vision. Before founding Scale AI, he gained industry experience as a software engineer at Addepar, a tech lead at Quora, and an algorithm developer at Hudson River Trading.
In 2016, Wang co-founded Scale AI, a data labeling startup for AI training, with Lucy Guo. The company provides data labeling and model evaluation services to develop AI applications. Scale AI's services are used to train AI models for various applications, including autonomous vehicles, e-commerce, and robotics. Scale AI quickly became a key player in the AI industry, working with major clients like Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The company has also received defense contracts from the United States Armed Forces. In 2021, Scale AI's valuation hit $7.3 billion, briefly giving Wang a $1 billion net worth, as he owned 15% of the company. By 2024, Scale AI generated approximately $870 million in revenue.
Wang's success with Scale AI led him to become the world's youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 24 in 2021. Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.6 billion as of April 2025.
In June 2025, Meta Platforms invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI for a 49% stake in the startup. As part of the deal, Wang joined Meta as its chief AI officer. He stepped down as CEO of Scale AI but remained on the board. The investment more than doubled Scale AI's valuation from $14 billion to $29 billion.
Wang's recent advice to teenagers centers around "vibe coding," which involves using AI tools to generate code based on natural language prompts. He suggests that young people should dedicate themselves to mastering these tools, as AI is increasingly taking over coding tasks at major tech companies. For example, AI is writing up to 30% of code for company projects at Microsoft and Google. Wang believes that spending "10,000 hours" getting familiar with AI coding tools would give teenagers a significant advantage. He compares this moment to the early days of the computer revolution when individuals like Bill Gates gained an edge by tinkering with software.
Wang predicts that AI will be able to write substantial amounts of code in the next five years, including all the code he has ever written. He argues that this shift marks a fundamental change in the role of engineers. While some experts, like Google Brain co-founder Andrew Ng, emphasize that coding remains vital for guiding AI, Wang believes that mastering AI coding tools is the key to future success in the tech industry.
