Key Points:
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes became a billionaire after the company was valued at $9 billion, but her net worth was later revised to $0
Holmes was convicted on four fraud-related charges in 2022 and sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison.
A24’s You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, explores Holmes’ life in the 34 days before she reported to prison
THE ‘YOUNGEST self-made woman billionaire’, with a net worth $4.5 billion in 2014, as per the Forbes report, suddenly became poor in 2016 as her company fell to $0. This is the story of a woman named Elizabeth Holmes, who founded a startup named Theranos — a health technology startup — in 2003. A documentary on her life is being made by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, named ‘You Can See Everything.’ The first full trailer for it was released on September 24, 2026, by A24, offering a closer look at her life, with the full theatrical release scheduled for October 16, 2026.
Holmes’s downfall started after questions were raised by The Wall Street Journal about her company’s technology and business, followed by a federal fraud investigation against her. Later, in 2016, her net worth was revised, and cases started to pile up against her. While she was acquitted in some cases, others resulted in her conviction on charges of fraud and conspiracy, leading to her sentence.
According to a recent update from the US Department of Justice's Victim Notification System, placement of the former Theranos CEO was approved at the Austin Transitional Center in Del Valle, Texas. Thus, she will be transferred from the federal prison to a community correction center in August 2027.
Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford University and later founded the blood-testing startup Theranos in 2003. Her company was created with the aim of making blood testing fast, affordable, and painless, requiring only a few drops of blood. After starting the company, Theranos raised more than $700 million through billionaire investors like Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison and was valued at $9 billion.
She was the owner of half of the stakes in Theranos, because of which her net worth was $4.5 billion, making her the “youngest self-made female billionaire” by Forbes in 2014 and 2015. At just 30 years old, she had reached billionaire status, but her fortune soon collapsed, making Forbes revise their data in 2016, changing $4.5 billion to $0. All of this happened after a report was published by The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ journalist John Carreyrou investigated Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes and began publishing his reports in 2015. His reports revealed that the health-tech startup was using the technologies of other companies and that its own technology did not work as claimed. Theranos said its device could run more than 250 blood tests using just a few drops of blood but the 2015 and 2016 reports later revealed that the technology did not work as advertised.
As per a WSJ report in 2015, Theranos struggled a lot to turn people’s anticipation into reality, and while doing that, there were many red flags. According to the testimony of former employees working at Theranos, the company was using a device called Edison, which some employees questioned. The reason was that the device was not accurate and failed to report the test results. The company also did not disclose publicly that it was using traditional machines for the majority of its tests.
Management also ignored warnings by employees, including scientists and lab directors, and instead told them not to disclose the information. Other than this, the company also lied to investors and the media about military contracts, claiming that its device was actively used by the US military in its medivac helicopters.
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The company also made false financial projections. They promised investors that the company would generate over $100 million in revenue in 2014 and the following years. In reality, the company was bringing in barely $100,000 in actual revenue. Then, in 2018, a federal grand jury indicted founder and Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Holmes and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani on fraud and conspiracy charges.
On January 3, 2022, out of 11 charges against her, Holmes was found guilty of four. Other than that, she was acquitted on four charges, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other three. Holmes received a sentence of 11 years and 3 months in prison, and she began serving her term at a federal prison in Bryan, Texas, in May 2023.
As of September 2026, she is serving her prison sentence at the same federal prison. She is planned to be transferred to the Austin Transitional Center, located in Del Valle, near Austin in August 2027 as part of a federal correction process. But despite all these things happening, Elizabeth still claimed that she never did anything wrong.
A24 has released the official trailer for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary You Can See Everything on September 23, 2026. It is expected to have a theatrical release on October 16, 2026, offering a closer look into the life of Elizabeth Holmes. For the documentary, Holmes invited filmmaker Nathan Fielder into her home just 34 days before she was due to go to prison.
The film showcases a secretive documentary co-directed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. It follows the 34 days that Holmes spent with her partner Billy Evans before she left for federal prison. However, the project later grew into a three-year filmmaking experience. The trailer begins with a question from Fielder to Holmes, “You really feel you did nothing wrong?” to which Holmes replied, “I did not.” And in the end, she said, “It took me a really long time to be okay with letting someone see me cry.”
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
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