Famous People with High IQ Scores

Most "famous IQ" figures floating around the internet are estimates, self-reports, or extrapolations from childhood tests - not verified adult clinical assessments. That caveat noted, the people below represent genuine outliers in cognitive ability.

IQ estimates at a glance

Scores above 160 are nearly impossible to measure reliably with standard tests - the ceiling is too low. Most figures above 160 come from ratio IQ calculations on childhood tests or from extrapolation, not from modern deviation IQ methodology.

Scientists and mathematicians

Terence Tao is the closest thing to a verified extreme case. He scored 760 on the SAT math section at age 8 and won the Fields Medal in 2006. His IQ of 225-230 is based on childhood ratio scoring by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth at Johns Hopkins.

Marilyn vos Savant holds the Guinness World Record for highest recorded IQ (228), based on a 1956 Stanford-Binet administered when she was 10. The Guinness category was retired in 1990 because of methodological concerns about comparing ratio IQ scores across different tests.

Stephen Hawking's 160 figure is widely cited but appears to be a journalistic estimate. When asked about his IQ in a New York Times interview, Hawking responded: "I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers."

Business and technology figures

Bill Gates scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, which correlates with a high IQ in the 160 range. He enrolled at Harvard at 17 before dropping out to co-found Microsoft. His SAT score is the primary basis for IQ estimates.

Elon Musk's 155 estimate is speculative, based on interviews and academic performance rather than any known formal test. He graduated summa cum laude from Wharton and holds a degree in physics from Penn, which suggests high cognitive ability without specifying a number.

Chess and strategy

Garry Kasparov's 190 figure comes from a psychologist's assessment during a 1987 study of chess grandmasters. Chess ability correlates strongly with spatial reasoning and working memory but not perfectly with general IQ. Kasparov himself has said chess is a poor proxy for general intelligence.

Entertainment

Both James Woods (180) and Sharon Stone (154) are self-reported figures. Woods has stated he scored 800 on his verbal SAT and was accepted to MIT before pursuing acting. These claims are unverified but not implausible given their academic records.