New Delhi: Two Indian-origin, are among the richest young men in the world, both at the age of 23. Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha and CEO Brendan Foody are the co-founders of the US-based AI startup, Mercor. Forbes has each founder getting a $4.2 billion valuation, with a stake of 21% in Mercor’s new $20 billion valuation. This comes to about Rs 40,000 crore for each of them, at the present exchange rate.
From debate stages to Silicon Valley
This story begins in the Bay Area of California. Hiremath and Midha attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, where they were debate champions. They are Indian-American and they win all three of the national debate competitions in a year. Later, Foody joined them. They met at Georgetown University where he was studying economics. All three became Thiel Fellows and all three quit college to launch the company.
What Mercor does
Mercor started out as a smaller business. It was launched in 2023 by the founders to connect Indian engineers with companies in the United States looking for freelance coders. Since then it’s become an AI-powered recruiting and talent marketplace, where AI models are trained by and improved by working professionals from many fields. Major technology firms and AI labs are its customers, and they use it to find specialized talent.
Over the years the roles have evolved. Foody is the co-CEO, Hiremath has been promoted from CTO to co-CEO and Midha, the former COO, is the chairman of the board.
A fast climb in valuation
The valuation of Mercor has been increasing rapidly. In February 2025, the founders raised $100 million with a valuation of $2 billion, according to several reports. As of October 2025, the company has raised $350 million in Series C funding and is now worth $10 billion. Each founder also was estimated to own approximately 22% of the company, bringing them to the billion dollar club before their 23rd birthday. The new round, valued at $20 billion, has doubled those fortunes.
Breaking Zuckerberg’s record
The trio were the youngest self-made billionaires ever in October 2025 when they were valued. They did so by stealing a title held by Mark Zuckerberg for almost 20 years, cutting one year off of his mark. Midha is said to be a couple of months younger than the other two, so making him the youngest of the three. He and the other two co-founders of the company were then included in Forbes’ 2026 World’s Billionaires list as the youngest self-made billionaires, valued at $2.2 billion each.
Hiremath has raised the issue of the timing being so peculiar. He said he would have been out of school about a couple of months earlier if he hadn’t been working on Mercor.
Why the story resonates in India
Much of the reason the founders are highlighted here is their Indian connection. Their roots are Indian and the first product was based on Indian engineering skills. They are the most recent example of Indian-American entrepreneurs at the helm of the US tech industry this time when most people are looking for their first jobs.
Lots of the wealth is also paper. Their fortunes are bound to the valuation of a private company and that depends on the continued interest of investors in funding AI startups such as Mercor. So far, the figures are quite plain and simple: three young friends are the founders of a $20 billion business that didn’t exist four years ago.
