Key Takeaways
- Three 22-year-olds become world’s youngest self-made billionaires
- Their AI startup Mercor reached a $10 billion valuation
- Each founder holds approximately 22% stake in the company
Three 22-year-old entrepreneurs—Brendan Foody, Indian-American Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha—have made history by becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaires after founding AI recruitment startup Mercor. They have surpassed Mark Zuckerberg, who achieved billionaire status at age 23 in 2008.
The founders now lead the ranks of young tech entrepreneurs reaching billionaire status, with all three featured on the Forbes 2025 under 30 list. Their achievement follows Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, 27, who entered the billionaire club recently.
What Is Mercor?
Mercor is an AI-focused recruitment startup that supports major Silicon Valley labs in training artificial intelligence models. Founded in 2023 by CEO Brendan Foody, CTO Adarsh Hiremath, and Board Chairman Surya Midha, the company initially aimed to connect skilled engineers from India with US firms seeking freelance coding talent.
According to Forbes, the startup recently raised $350 million in a funding round led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from investors including Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures. This funding round pushed the company’s valuation to $10 billion, turning all three co-founders into billionaires with each holding approximately 22% stake.
Meet the Founders
Two of Mercor’s three co-founders, Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath, are of Indian-American origin. Both studied at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where they were debate team teammates and made history by winning all three national policy debate tournaments in one year.
Surya Midha is a second-generation immigrant, while Hiremath pursued computer science at Harvard University before leaving after two years to focus on building Mercor. During this period, Midha was studying Foreign Studies at Georgetown University, where Brendan Foody was pursuing an Economics degree. All three later left their universities simultaneously to dedicate full attention to Mercor and eventually became Thiel Fellows.
