New Delhi, November 2: Three 22-year-old entrepreneurs, Brendan Foody, Indian-American Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires after founding the AI startup Mercor. They have replaced Mark Zuckerberg, who became a billionaire at 23 in 2008. Their success marks a major moment in the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

The founders of Mercor now lead the ranks of young tech entrepreneurs who have recently reached billionaire status. All three were featured on the Forbes 2025 under 30 list. Their achievement follows that of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, 27, who entered the billionaire club 20 days after a USD 2 billion investment from NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange. Elon Musk Teases Tesla Roadster Could Be a Flying Car, Calls Upcoming Prototype Demo the ‘Most Memorable Ever’ (Watch Videos).

What Is Mercor?

Mercor is an AI-focused recruitment startup that supports major Silicon Valley labs in training artificial intelligence (AI) models. Mercor was 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. Their success has now made them the world’s youngest self-made billionaires.

As per a report of Forbes, the startup recently announced that it raised USD 350 million in a funding round led by Felicis Ventures, along with investors like Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures. The latest round has pushed the company’s valuation to USD 10 billion. The funding round has turned CEO Brendan Foody, CTO Adarsh Hiremath, and board chairman Surya Midha into new billionaires, each holding about a 22% share in the company.

Who Are Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha?

Two of Mercor’s three co-founders, Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath, are of Indian-American origin. As per reports, both studied at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where they were teammates on the debate team 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 dedicate his time to building Mercor. Elon Musk Predicts End of Traditional Mobile Phones and Apps Within the Next 5–6 years (Watch Video).

During the period when Adarsh Hiremath was enrolled at Harvard, Surya Midha was studying Foreign Studies at Georgetown University, where Brendan Foody was also pursuing a degree in Economics. Soon after, Midha and Foody left Georgetown, coinciding with Hiremath’s decision to leave Harvard, so they could dedicate their full attention to Mercor. All three later became Thiel Fellows.

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 02, 2025 11:14 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).