LUMINAR TO MAKE 25-YEAR-OLD AUSTIN RUSSELL YOUNGEST BILLIONAIRE

Luminar CEO and co-founder Austin Russell is poised to become a billionaire at 25 when his autonomous driving technology company Luminar goes public, Eric Rosenbaum reported for the broadcast network CNBC.

The lidar sensing technology company works with major automakers as well as Intel’s Mobileye. Elon Musk says lidar is not needed for self-driving, but Luminar has a $1 billion-plus book of business and relationships with major automakers.

Luminar, which creates lidar technology critical to many automakers’ autonomous driving efforts, is going public on Thursday through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and the deal will make Luminar co-founder and CEO Austin Russell a billionaire — at the age of 25.

Russell, who founded the company as a 17-year-old high school student, said the feeling of becoming a billionaire (on paper, at least) is “absolutely incredible” and “totally surreal.” But the Luminar CEO said it also follows the plan his company has had in mind since founding. “It is totally surreal and it totally makes sense and it is hard to explain the dichotomy of it, but this has always been the goal,” he said. “We set up the company to be a long-term sustainable business and power the future of autonomy for all of these automakers. We are in it for the long-term,” Russell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box."