The surge of artificial intelligence has transformed the data center industry into a goldmine for executives, founders, and investors, Bloomberg reports. Once a quiet corner of the tech world, data centers—facilities that house servers, GPUs, and networking equipment—have become critical to powering AI models, including large language systems and generative tools. The vast computational capacity required for AI has driven unprecedented investment in the sector, lifting the stock prices and valuations of companies that provide the essential infrastructure. Those providing the “picks and shovels” of AI—the buildings, power systems, and connectivity—have seen fortunes soar even faster than the software developers themselves.
New Jersey-based CoreWeave exemplifies the unexpected winners of this AI gold rush. Founded in 2017 by former commodities traders Mike Intrator, Brian Venturo, and Brannin McBee as a cryptocurrency mining startup, the company struggled in its early years, storing mining rigs in Venturo’s grandfather’s Manhattan garage. A pivot to AI data centers proved transformative. With investments from Coatue Management and Nvidia, CoreWeave went public in March 2025 at a $23 billion valuation, the largest US tech IPO in two years. The company now operates over 33 data centers across the US and Europe, offering more than 250,000 GPUs to AI developers. Since the IPO, CoreWeave’s stock has surged nearly 90%, turning all three co-founders into multi-billionaires: Intrator now has a net worth of $5 billion, Venturo $3.2 billion, and McBee $2.2 billion. Former boss Jack Cogen, who invested early, also became a billionaire, holding $1.8 billion. CoreWeave’s IPO and subsequent insider sales illustrate how AI-driven demand for computing infrastructure can rapidly create wealth for those positioned to supply it.
QTS, founded by Chad Williams, demonstrates how long-term vision in data center real estate can translate into enormous wealth. Williams built his empire gradually, beginning with the purchase of an office building housing a data center in Overland Park, Kansas, in 2003. Over nearly two decades, he expanded QTS through strategic acquisitions, including former industrial and media facilities, gradually turning it into one of North America’s fastest-growing data center landlords. In 2021, Blackstone acquired QTS for $10 billion, with Williams retaining a significant stake until a buyout in 2025, leaving him with a personal fortune of $3 billion. Williams has since announced plans to launch Quality Infratech Intelligence, a new company aimed at advising power-hungry industrial and data center operators, with future plans to build additional AI-focused infrastructure.
Arkady Volozh, the founder of Nebius Group NV, offers another compelling story. The former Yandex CEO navigated years of tension with the Russian government before sanctions temporarily derailed his international ambitions. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volozh sold off all Russian assets from Yandex, rebranded the remaining business as Nebius, and shifted focus to AI data centers. Nebius now operates facilities in Finland, France, Iceland, and the United States, aiming to reach 100 megawatts of active power by the end of the year. In September 2025, Nebius announced a landmark partnership with Microsoft worth up to $19.4 billion, sending Volozh’s net worth to $2.6 billion and solidifying his position among the new generation of AI-driven billionaires.
Connectivity has also become a critical differentiator in the AI infrastructure race. Astera Labs, founded in 2017 by former Texas Instruments engineers Sanjay Gajendra and Jitendra Mohan, provides advanced networking solutions that connect GPUs within data centers, enabling faster and more efficient AI processing. Initially started in Gajendra’s Santa Clara garage, the company introduced multiple hardware and software product lines within five years, and went public in 2024 with a valuation of $24 billion. Both Gajendra and Mohan are now worth $1.5 billion each, reflecting the premium investors are willing to pay for AI-ready infrastructure.
Groq, founded by Jonathan Ross in 2016 after incubating AI chip technology at Google, focuses on specialized processors optimized for running trained AI models. Unlike graphics-focused GPUs, Groq’s chips maximize speed and cost-efficiency for inference tasks, an area increasingly critical for AI applications. The company raised $750 million in September 2025, achieving a $6.9 billion valuation. Blue-chip investors including BlackRock and Cisco participated, further cementing the company’s reputation as a high-growth AI infrastructure leader. Ross, now a billionaire with a net worth of $1.1 billion, exemplifies how highly specialized hardware can yield outsized returns in the AI ecosystem.
Other entrants are pushing the boundaries of scale and ambition. Fermi Inc., co-founded by Toby Neugebauer and Griffin Perry, plans to build a nuclear-powered AI data center campus in Amarillo, Texas, dubbed the “President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.” Once operational, the facility will generate 11 gigawatts of power and host data centers equivalent to nearly half the size of Central Park, powered by the output of five Hoover Dam equivalents. Fermi’s audacious vision has propelled its shares upward by 55% since its IPO, with Neugebauer’s personal net worth reaching $5.1 billion.
Snowflake, the cloud data giant, has leveraged AI’s growth to further boost the fortunes of its leadership. Co-founders Benoit Dageville and Thierry Cruanes, along with former CEO Frank Slootman and former CFO Michael Scarpelli, have become billionaires as Snowflake scales its cloud platform to meet AI demands. Snowflake’s revenue has grown more than 13-fold since its IPO to $3.6 billion in the past fiscal year, and its shares are up roughly 60% in 2025, with a market capitalization of around $85 billion. The company has also begun producing AI tools to help customers interact with data more efficiently, further cementing its relevance in the AI era.
Finally, Cipher Mining, spun out from Bitfury by Val Vavilov, illustrates how crypto infrastructure companies are pivoting to AI. Leveraging its experience in high-performance computing for Bitcoin mining, Cipher Mining now provides AI cloud computing capacity to clients such as Fluidstack, backed by Google. Its shares have risen 200% in 2025, while Vavilov retains a 12% stake, valued at $1 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index underscores how the AI revolution is creating wealth not only for software developers but also for the infrastructure providers who make AI possible. From GPUs and networking chips to power generation and cloud storage, the companies supporting the AI boom are generating new billionaires at an unprecedented pace. As demand for AI continues to accelerate, these executives and founders are likely to remain at the forefront of one of the fastest wealth-creation cycles in modern tech history.
