In a stunning turn of success for the new generation of AI entrepreneurs, three 22-year-old co-founders, Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha, and Brendan Foody, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires after their artificial intelligence company, Mercor, raised $350 million in funding.
With each founder owning roughly 22 per cent of the company, Mercor is now valued at around $10 billion, catapulting them ahead of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who first entered the Forbes Billionaires List at age 23 in 2008.
This landmark achievement has placed the trio among the youngest and most influential figures in global technology, underscoring how Gen Z innovators are transforming AI entrepreneurship.
Hiremath and Midha, both of Indian origin, grew up in San Jose, California, and attended Bellarmine College Preparatory, an elite private school known for nurturing future tech leaders. The duo first gained attention in high school when they won all three major national policy debate championships in a single year, a historic first in American debate history.
Hiremath later joined Harvard University to study computer science, where he also worked as a research assistant in macroeconomics under former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. However, he soon realised that academic theory could not match the pace of innovation in artificial intelligence.
In 2022, he co-founded Mercor from his dorm room, focusing on AI-driven labour aggregation, which he called “the greatest opportunity of the 21st century.” He later dropped out of Harvard to pursue the startup full-time after receiving the Thiel Fellowship, an elite program created by investor Peter Thiel that offers $100,000 grants to students who leave college to build startups.
Reflecting on his journey, Hiremath told Forbes, “The thing that’s crazy for me is, if I weren’t working on Mercor, I would have just graduated from college a couple of months ago.”
Midha, born in Mountain View, California, to parents who migrated from New Delhi, completed his degree in foreign studies at Georgetown University, where he met Foody, the third co-founder.
All three founders share deep familial ties to Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem, their parents worked in engineering and software development roles in leading technology firms. This upbringing, surrounded by innovation and entrepreneurship, laid the foundation for their later success.
Mercor’s mission is to revolutionise how global labour is aggregated and managed using artificial intelligence. The startup’s technology connects skilled professionals with AI systems that optimise hiring, workflow distribution, and task management, potentially reshaping the future of employment in a digital-first economy.
The recent $350 million investment round, led by top venture capital firms from Silicon Valley and Singapore, has positioned Mercor as one of the fastest-growing AI startups in the world.
At just 22, the founders’ meteoric rise symbolises a generational shift, where innovation, ambition, and technology converge to create wealth faster than ever before.
Their success story not only highlights the global reach of Indian-origin talent but also reaffirms Silicon Valley’s status as the breeding ground for disruptive ideas.
With Mercor now eyeing expansion in Asia and Europe, the young founders stand as a testament to how far passion, intellect, and bold risk-taking can go in the age of artificial intelligence.
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