22-Year-Old Indian-Origin School Friends: World’s Youngest Billionaires at $10B

Summary

• 22-year-old Indian-origin school friends co-founded Mercor, now valued at $10 billion.
• Mercor uses AI to disrupt global hiring, raising $350 million in a recent funding round.
• Their unprecedented success sets a new benchmark as the world’s youngest self-made billionaires.

The story of 22-year-old Indian-origin school friends becoming the world’s youngest billionaires is creating waves in 2025. Their AI-driven recruitment startup Mercor recently raised $350 million, valuing the company at $10 billion and surpassing Mark Zuckerberg’s record. How did they turn a dorm room idea into a multibillion-dollar enterprise so fast? Read on to find out the fascinating journey and what it means for the future of tech innovation.

Who Are the Youngest Billionaires?

Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, along with Brendan Foody, are the trailblazing school friends behind Mercor, an AI-powered hiring startup now valued at $10 billion. Raised in San Jose, California, Hiremath and Midha attended Bellarmine College Preparatory where they first bonded over national debate championships. Later, Hiremath studied computer science at Harvard while Midha pursued international relations at Georgetown. Driven by a vision, they all dropped out to focus on Mercor full-time, supported by the prestigious Thiel Fellowship.

Mercor uses advanced artificial intelligence to revolutionize recruitment by matching job seekers efficiently with companies worldwide. Each founder owns around 22% of the company, making them some of the wealthiest young self-made billionaires ever. Their success marks a new era where youth, technology, and bold risks converge to reshape industries.

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What Makes Mercor a Gamechanger in Hiring?

Mercor stands out by leveraging AI to transform a traditionally slow and biased hiring process into a streamlined, data-driven experience. The startup’s innovative platform uses machine learning algorithms to aggregate labor market intelligence, enabling recruiters to identify the right talent faster than ever before. This scalability and precision have attracted investors’ attention, culminating in a $350 million funding round that propelled their valuation to $10 billion.

The founders believe labor market transformation is the “greatest opportunity of the 21st century,” positioning Mercor as a disruptor redefining global recruitment strategies. With labor shortages and talent mismatches rampant post-pandemic, Mercor’s AI tech arrives at an urgent juncture, poised for rapid expansion.

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Netizens React

Public opinion has been abuzz since news of these young billionaires broke.

One user wrote, “It’s inspiring to see two Indians and a friend break records at 22 with such groundbreaking technology.”

Another tweeted, “Mercor’s AI recruitment model sounds like the future of hiring—can’t wait to see more startups follow this path.”

However, some skeptics ask, “Will Mercor sustain this valuation or is it just hype? The startup market can be volatile.”

These diverse reactions highlight the mix of admiration and cautious optimism surrounding young entrepreneurs in tech.

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Explore how their startup Mercor transformed AI recruiting

Mercor has transformed AI recruiting by building a sophisticated AI-powered platform that automates and optimizes the entire hiring pipeline, especially for knowledge-work roles in tech, law, medicine, and finance. Here’s how Mercor stands out in the AI recruitment space:

AI-Driven Hiring Pipeline

Mercor automates early-to-mid funnel recruiting tasks such as sourcing, interviewing, candidate matching, and onboarding. Its system uses semantic sourcing to convert natural language job descriptions into precise search queries that scour resumes, portfolios, and other candidate data. Candidates undergo AI-led interviews that generate structured evaluations instead of just resumes, enabling employers to receive ranked, data-backed shortlists of the best-fit talent.

Human-in-the-Loop Expertise

Mercor’s model combines AI with human expertise by maintaining a global network of over 30,000 vetted contractors who contribute human judgment to AI training and real-world hiring scenarios. This “human-in-the-loop” approach helps in labeling data, simulating scenarios, and injecting nuanced insights that pure AI often misses, which is why top AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic rely on Mercor.

Speed, Transparency, and Fairness

Mercor’s platform is designed for speed and depth in vetting candidates. It reduces manual effort in hiring by automating sourcing, interviewing, and payments, all integrated into one workflow. The startup emphasizes fairness by addressing bias audits, compliance, and explainability in AI hiring decisions, positioning itself as a more objective and efficient alternative to traditional methods.

Market Impact and Growth

Since its founding in 2023, Mercor quickly scaled to over $500 million annualized revenue by mid-2024, driven by demand for AI-enhanced recruitment amid a competitive global talent shortage. Its proprietary large language models and vector database resume analytics have delivered client successes that include US startups, major AI labs, and global corporations. Mercor’s revenue and valuation skyrocketed with a $350 million funding round in 2025 valuing the company at $10 billion.

Overall, Mercor has redefined recruitment by merging artificial intelligence with human insight, dramatically improving how companies discover, vet, and onboard talent at scale. This breakthrough approach underpins the extraordinary success of its young founders and marks a key milestone in the future of work.

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