Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe is determined to prove herself with a $185 million AI venture using 'no ties to privilege'.
While some wealthy families pass their fortunes down through generations, Bill Gates has taken a notably different approach. The Microsoft billionaire has previously shared that, despite his enormous wealth, his children will inherit only a tiny portion of it - just 1% to be exact. The rest is reportedly set to 'return to those most in need' through the Gates Foundation.
And he's not alone in taking this stance.
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Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, has also stated that the fortune she inherited from her late husband won’t be passed on to their three children.
Now, Gates' youngest daughter is setting out to demonstrate that she doesn't need family money or connections to build her own successful business.
Phoebe Gates wants to build her own AI shopping company with 'no ties' to her privilege or last name, she told Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast (via Fortune). "I have a chip on my shoulder."
The 23-year-old cofounded Phia, an AI shopping assistant, alongside her Stanford University roommate Sophia Kianni.
The tool works like a personal deal finder. It plugs into browsers like Chrome and Safari to compare prices and uncover deals across tens of thousands of retail and resale sites in real time.
“Our target consumer is a young woman who’s hustling. She shops like a genius, but she doesn’t want to waste her time doing it,” Gates told Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in April 2025 (via Fortune).
The New York–based startup recently secured $35 million in funding from Notable Capital, boosting its valuation to around $185 million, less than a year after raising an initial $8 million seed round. The pair launched its app in 2025 it has attracted hundreds of thousands of downloads in its first few months.
This doesn't seem unusual, as investors have poured money into AI agents and automated technology - just look at how much you could've made if you invested in Nvidia in 2015.
Gates and Kianni cycled through various ideas before settling on a consumer product that merged Gates' passion for women's empowerment, which was likely influenced by her mother, Melinda French Gates, and Kianni's focus on sustainability.
Keeping true to her word, the young entrepreneur hopes to build Phia independently of her family name and hasn't accepted any funding from her parents.
“The chip on my shoulder is not only proving myself but building something, you know, novel and unique that consumers actually love,” she said.