A British founder who walked away from formal education after just two days of sixth form has now become Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire. James Dacombe, aged 25, built AI chip startup Olix from scratch and watched its valuation surge past the ten-figure mark within months.
Olix launched in London in 2024. Six months later, an August funding round valued the company at more than triple its previous worth after it pulled in $312 million. New York investment firm Fundomo led the raise.
Other backers included chip giant Arm, quantitative trading powerhouse Hudson River Trading, and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. The U.K. government’s Sovereign AI fund also participated. Forbes estimates Dacombe controls roughly 30% of Olix, pushing his personal fortune into billionaire territory.
Meanwhile, Dacombe holds a separate 12% stake in CoMind, a medtech venture developing non-invasive brain monitoring tools. That company raised $102.5 million in August 2025 without disclosing a valuation.
Globally, only 11 self-created billionaires under 30 exist today. Dacombe ranks as one of four based outside the United States.
Olix competes in a crowded field of semiconductor startups targeting Nvidia’s dominant position in AI chips. Rather than chase a single general-purpose processor, the company engineers specialized silicon tailored to distinct AI workloads. Its photonic technology, which transfers data using light, aims to boost speed while cutting energy demands.
Dacombe grew up in Harrogate, northern England. He taught himself programming at 13 by building websites and apps. After two days at St Aidan’s and St John Fisher sixth-form college in 2017, he dropped out, as reported by The Times.
The following year, he founded CoMind. In 2022, he joined PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s fellowship program for young entrepreneurs who skip university. Two years later, Dacombe launched Olix through Bletchley Industries, his holding company that also owns CoMind.
Olix now employs over 140 staff across the U.K., U.S., and Canada. The startup expects to finalize its chip designs and ship full systems to customers by 2027.
