Developing new aluminum alloy compositions with high specific strength is a major goal. This study investigates the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy system (7xxx series) using machine learning-based composition and process optimization. The optimized alloy exhibits a high ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 952 MPa and 6.3% elongation using a cost-effective processing route. The study demonstrates the feasibility of machine learning in discovering high-performance 7xxx alloys.