- For the sixth consecutive year, the AFR Young Rich List has been topped by Canvaโs Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht.
- In his third appearance, LMCT+ and โLambo Guyโ of The Block notoriety, Adrian Portelli, has once again manoeuvred up the rankings, overtaking the likes of Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar.
- And thanks to the artificial intelligence boom, ex-Meta engineer turned Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Andrew Tulloch has become the highest-ranked debutant of 2025.
The biggest story surrounding the 2025 AFR Young Rich List isnโt the fact that Canvaโs Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht have retained the throne for the sixth consecutive year (and as they eye taking their homegrown behemoth public).
It isnโt even the fact that โLambo Guyโ Adrian Portelli of giveaway business LMCT+ and The Block notoriety has continued to climb the ranks two years after making his debut as a legit billionaire (and a year after overtaking the likes of Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar).
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Whatโs captivated our attention โ as it should yours โ is an engineer by the name of Andrew Tulloch.
As some of you may recall, the University of Sydney alum and Thinking Machines Lab founder made headlines a few months ago when he refused an NBA-calibre, multi-year contract said to be worth โas much as $1.5 billionโ offered by former employer Mark Zuckerberg.
The AI boffin was previously employed by Meta as a โDistinguished Engineerโ in its nascent AI arm following a brief stint at Goldman Sachs as a strategist. Eventually, he made the leap to Sam Altmanโs OpenAI in 2024, before joining Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati on a grand exodus a year later, at which point the duo established Thinking Machines Lab.
Exercising the power of โnoโ hasnโt only brought Tulloch to the doorstep of billionaire status. Itโs also skyrocketed him to #7 in this yearโs AFR Young Rich List โ and on debut among rarefied company, no less.
โHis net worth was primarily estimated based on his stake in the $12 billion AI giant [Thinking Machine Labs], but having left less than a year after joining, this is likely to have taken a substantial hit,โ explains Yolanda Redrup, Editor of the AFR Rich List, in reference to his freshly announced decision to return to Meta.
Here he is: the man who turned down a $1B offer over 4yrs from Meta. pic.twitter.com/fLqVxZFWFz
โ Deedy (@deedydas) August 2, 2025
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โHis fortune highlights both the opportunities for rapid wealth creation in AI, as founders race to create the next-generational businesses, but also the fallible nature of these fortunes.โ
The dimensions of Tullochโs potential buy-out structure remain unclear, though considering what Zucc was prepared to pay to poach his talents back in August โ as part of his โfull-scale raidโ on Thinking Machines Lab after a failed attempt to acquire the fledgling startup โ we imagine the lad from Perth will be compensated nicely either way.
We also imagine weโll be encountering far more stories resembling that of Andrew Tullochโs (and generally within the artificial intelligence space) in the not-so-distant future. If you ever needed proof itโs the new gold rush, this is it.
Check out the Top 10 of this yearโs AFR Young Rich List below.
AFR Young Rich List (2025)
#1. Melanie Perkins & Cliff Obrecht (Tech) โ $18.46 billion
Canva | Co-Founders, CEO, & COO
Age: 38 & 39
#2. Ed Craven (Gambling) โ $4.61 billion
Stake.com | Co-Founder
Age: 30
#3. James & Robbie Ferguson (Tech / Gaming) โ $1.69 billion
Immutable | Co-Founders
Age: 33 & 28
#4. Adrian Portelli (Gambling) โ $1.41 billion
LMCT+| Founder
Age: 36
#5. Jack Zhang (Tech / Financial Services) โ $1.31 billion
Airwallex | Co-Founder & CEO
Age: 40
#6. Nicholas Molnar (Tech / Financial Services) โ $1.19 billion
Afterpay | Co-Founder (plus Head of Sales at Block)
Age: 35
#7. Andrew Tulloch (Tech / Artificial Intelligence) โ $953 million
Thinking Machine Lab | Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Age:
#8. Paul Stovell (Tech) โ $637 million
Octopus Deploy| Founder
Age: 39
#9. Jessica Sepel & Dean Steingold (Health & Beauty) โ $486 million
JSHealth | Co-Founders
Age: 36 & 40
#=10. Alex Tomic (Health & Beauty) โ $470 million
Hismile | Co-Founder
Age: 31
#=10. Nik Mirkovic (Health & Beauty) โ $470 million
Hismile | Co-Founder
Age: 30
Keep an eye out for the complete 2025 AFR Young Rich List (all Top 100 entrants) when the results are published later this week.
