From studying under a tree in a remote Indian village to building one of the world’s biggest cybersecurity firms, his journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Today, with a fortune of around $17.9 billion, he holds the title of the richest Indian in America — Jay Chaudhry.
Chaudhry’s net worth has surged by 70 percent compared to his $10 billion valuation in January 2025. As Trump’s administration tightens its stance on H-1B visas, Chaudhry stands as a prime example of a successful immigrant. He began his career in the US in 1980 under the predecessor of the H-1B program, nearly a decade before the visa was formally introduced.
Who is Jay Chaudhry?
Born in 1958 in Panoh, a small village in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district, Jay Chaudhry grew up in a family of small-scale farmers. His parents, Bhagat and Surjeet Chaudhry, tilled the land for a living. The village he grew up in had no access to direct water or electricity. Young Jay often studied outdoors under a tree. To attend school, he walked nearly 4 km every day to the neighbouring Dhusara village. Despite all the struggles, one thing he never forgot was to prioritise his studies no matter what.
First flight to the US
Chaudhry’s academic brilliance landed him a spot in electronics engineering from IIT-BHU (Varanasi). After the completion of his degree, he won a Tata Group scholarship that changed his life. At just 22, he boarded his first-ever flight to the United States, where he pursued master’s degrees in computer engineering, industrial engineering, and an MBA in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. Later, he even completed an executive program at Harvard Business School.
The leap into entrepreneurship
Before kickstarting his own company, Jay worked at several multinational tech giants, including IBM, Unisys, and NCR Corporation. In 1996, he and his wife, Jyoti, invested their savings of around (₹4 crore) to start SecureIT, their first cybersecurity venture. The company’s success was so massive that it was acquired by VeriSign in just two years for $70 million. The success turned several employees into millionaires. Over the years, Chaudhry went on to found four more companies, including CoreHarbor, CipherTrust, AirDefense, and finally, Zscaler.
Building Zscaler into a global powerhouse
Founded in 2007, Zscaler, which turned Chaudhry into a billionaire, was a big bet on the future of cloud security. At a time when traditional firewall-based systems were losing relevance, he envisioned a “Zero Trust” architecture to protect users and applications in the cloud era. His vision started paying off, and in 2018, Zscaler went public on Nasdaq. Today, with a market value of nearly $46.64 billion and annual revenues crossing $1.6 billion, it stands as one of the most influential cybersecurity firms in the world.
Behind his success is also a story of a woman who never left his side, even quitting her job as a systems analyst to support his dream and invest in their startup journey. The couple, who now live in Reno, Nevada, has three children.
Jay Chaudhry is currently 66 and continues to lead Zscaler as its founder and CEO. Over the years, he has been honoured with awards like IIT Varanasi’s Alumnus of the Century, the American India Foundation’s Corporate Leadership Award, and was a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program.