Silicon Valley loves a “college dropout becomes billionaire” story. But the rise of Surya Midha, Adarsh Hiremath, and Brendan Foody is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Their company, Mercor, is now worth $10 billion, according to Forbes, making 22-year-olds Midha and Hiremath the youngest self-made billionaires in the world. But Mercor isn’t just a success story, it’s changing the way companies find talent in the age of AI.
The young Billionaires who are changing hiring forever
Mercor’s founders have now surpassed other young tech billionaires. They took the title from Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket, who was 27 and held it for just 20 days. Before him, Alexandr Wang of Scale AI, 28, was the youngest self-made billionaire. Surya Midha, the board chairman, is the youngest of the three, born in June, just slightly younger than his cofounders.
At 22, all three are younger than Mark Zuckerberg when he became a billionaire. Last year, Mercor announced a $350 million funding round, led by Felicis Ventures, with support from Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures. This new funding values the company at $10 billion. According to Forbes, each founder now owns roughly 22% of the company.
All three founders grew up around tech. Foody’s parents were software engineers, his mom at Meta and his dad started a graphics company. Foody even launched a small venture at 16, helping friends get promotions on Amazon Web Services. Hiremath and Midha have been friends since age 10, competing in debate tournaments before meeting Foody in high school. Hiremath also studied labor markets at Harvard and did research for Larry Summers, who later invested in Mercor.
From India to Silicon Valley
Mercor started with a simple observation: old-school hiring doesn’t work. For decades, getting a job in Silicon Valley meant having a top-degree and knowing the right people. Midha and Hiremath saw the flaws in this system.
The trio originally set out to connect engineers in India with US companies looking for freelance coders. Their platform allowed applicants to interview with AI avatars, eventually leading them to the high-demand world of data labeling for AI labs like OpenAI. Their success earned them spots on Forbes 2025 Under 30 and the Forbes Cloud 100 list. In October 2025, Mercor reported a $500 million annualized revenue run rate, up from $100 million in March, according to Forbes.
Even in Silicon Valley, famous for its young entrepreneurs, Mercor stands out. All three founders are Thiel Fellows, part of Peter Thiel’s program that gives $100,000 to young innovators who skip college to build businesses.
How Mercor uses AI to hire smarter
Mercor is a talent marketplace powered by AI. Instead of HR teams scrolling through resumes, Mercor uses smart algorithms to find the best candidates. Mercor is an AI-powered talent platform that finds and vets top candidates faster and more accurately than humans. It assesses skills, predicts performance in high-pressure tech roles, and speeds up hiring from months to hours