Three 22-year-old friends, including Indian-Americans Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, alongside Brendan Foody, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires, surpassing Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg who reached billionaire status at 23. The trio are co-founders of Mercor, a San Francisco-based AI recruiting startup that recently raised $350 million, valuing the company at $10 billion. Each founder holds roughly 22% equity, placing their individual net worths around $2 billion.
Hiremath, originally from Karnataka, serves as Chief Technology Officer, while Midha, with roots in New Delhi, is the board chairman. The three began their entrepreneurial journey at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where they excelled in national policy debate championships. Post-high school, their educational paths took them to Harvard, Georgetown, and back into the tech world.
Mercor was founded in 2023 to connect AI labs with domain experts to train foundational AI models. Initially a platform for AI-driven hiring, Mercor evolved to provide access to over 30,000 specialists from fields including medicine, law, and engineering. Backed by notable investors like Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, Mercor has quickly risen as a key player in the AI ecosystem.
The achievement highlights the rapid pace at which value can be created in AI and marks a new milestone for youthful tech entrepreneurship. In addition to Hiremath and Midha, other Indian-American startup founders continue to make waves in AI, underscoring the significant contributions of the South Asian diaspora in Silicon Valley.
