At just 22, Indian-Americans Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, along with their classmate Brendan Foody, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires — younger than Mark Zuckerberg was when he made his first billion.
A 22-year-old trio from California’s Bay Area has rewritten tech history by becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaires, surpassing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s record. The group — Indian-Americans Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, along with Brendan Foody — co-founded Mercor, a San Francisco-based startup that recently achieved a $10 billion valuation, reported gujaratsamachar.com.
Their journey from school debate champions to Silicon Valley billionaires has captured global attention.
According to Forbes, Mercor raised $350 million in a funding round led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures. The massive investment pushed Mercor’s valuation to $10 billion, instantly making the founders the youngest billionaires in the world.
The trio dethroned Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan (27), who held the title for just 20 days following a $2 billion investment in his company
Before him, Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang (28) held the distinction for 18 months, while Lucy Guo, Wang’s co-founder, became the youngest self-made woman billionaire at 30, surpassing Taylor Swift.
Young visionaries with Indian roots
Two of Mercor’s founders — Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath — share Indian heritage and a common alma mater: Bellarmine College Preparatory, an all-boys high school in San Jose, California. Both were part of the school’s debate team, where they made history as the first pair ever to win all three national policy debate tournaments — the TOC, NDCA, and NSDA — in a single year.
Midha, born in Mountain View to parents who immigrated from New Delhi, describes himself as a second-generation Indian-American passionate about policy and technology. “My partner and I were the first team in history to win all three national tournaments in policy debate,” his website reads.
Hiremath, also a Bellarmine alumnus, went on to study computer science at Harvard University, before dropping out after two years to focus entirely on building Mercor. “If I weren’t working at Mercor, I would have just graduated college a couple of months ago,” he told Forbes.
With their combined vision, technical brilliance, and ambition, the three co-founders of Mercor have joined the elite ranks of Silicon Valley’s billionaire innovators — while still in their early twenties.
