NewDelhi: Most people in their early 20s are still figuring out careers, finishing college or landing their first job. But Indian-origin entrepreneur Surya Midha has entered a completely different league. At just 22, he has become one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world. And in the process, he has crossed a milestone that once belonged to Mark Zuckerberg, reaching billionaire status at an even younger age.
According to Forbes’ 2026 billionaire list, with an estimated net worth of around $2.2 billion (nearly Rs 18,000 crore), Midha is now among the world’s youngest self-made billionaires.
What makes his rise stand out is not the age, but the source of his wealth. Unlike legacy business families or inherited fortunes, his success comes from a fast-growing artificial intelligence startup built in Silicon Valley’s latest tech wave.
The AI company that changed everything
Midha co-founded Mercor along with his friends Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath. The company does not work like a traditional hiring platform. It runs almost entirely on artificial intelligence.
In simple terms, Mercor connects companies with people who can train AI models, handle research work and support technical development. As demand for AI talent exploded across the world, companies suddenly needed skilled workers who understood machine learning systems, data training and advanced AI tools.
Mercor stepped into that space and turned it into a business model. The platform even uses AI to conduct interviews, evaluate skills and match candidates with companies. This automation-driven approach helped the company scale at a speed rarely seen in the tech industry.
From idea to billion-dollar valuation
Backed by major investors such as Benchmark, Felicis and General Catalyst, Mercor gained momentum in the AI hiring space. The growth numbers have been fast. According to Forbes, the company’s annual revenue jumped from around $100 million in March 2025 to nearly $500 million by September.
That kind of expansion in only a few months is rare even in the fast-moving AI sector. The strong investor interest pushed the company’s valuation to around $10 billion that placed it among the rising names in the global AI economy.
As the company scaled, all three co-founders entered billionaire status together.
Beating Zuckerberg’s early milestone
Midha’s rise is gaining traction because of one comparison in particular. Zuckerberg became a billionaire at the age of 23, but Midha reached the milestone at 22. It made him younger than the Meta founder when he first entered the billionaire club.
For Forbes, this placed him in the category of the youngest self-made billionaires, a group that continues to shrink as AI-driven startups accelerate wealth creation at an unusual pace.
A different kind of Silicon Valley story
Midha and his co-founders did not come from traditional corporate backgrounds. They were friends from a debate team and chose to drop out of college to build their startup. In Silicon Valley, this is becoming more common, where young founders skip conventional routes and build AI companies that scale rapidly.
AI boom driving new fortunes
The rise of Mercor also points to a change in the tech world. Artificial intelligence is no longer limited to tools such as chatbots or image generation. It is now integrated into hiring, coding, healthcare, finance and education.
This rapid expansion has created a new wave of startups that are scaling into billion-dollar companies within only a few years. Mercor stands as one of the clearest examples of how the AI boom is changing not only technology, but also how wealth is created at the highest level.
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