The youngest of the three
Forbes published the ranking on 30 October 2025: Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, all 22, all self-made, all billionaires on paper. Midha is the youngest of the three by about two months, which makes him, at that moment, the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
The margin is trivial and the distinction is real. Records of this kind are settled by birth dates, and a two-month gap is what separates a footnote from a headline.
What the company actually does
Mercor is a marketplace for human expertise. It recruits professionals, many with doctorates, law degrees or Wall Street careers behind them, and pays them to train artificial intelligence models for clients including OpenAI and Meta. The San Francisco Standard reported rates of up to $200 an hour for that work.
The numbers around it are substantial: a $350 million Series C led by Felicis Ventures at a $10 billion valuation, a $500 million annualised revenue run rate as of September 2025, about $1.5 million paid out to contractors every day, and a profitable business. Foody, the chief executive, framed the bet as building what he called arguably the largest new category of work while everyone else discussed job displacement.
Georgetown, and the exit from it
Midha and Foody were at Georgetown; Hiremath was at Harvard. All three left in 2023. They had met years earlier on a high-school debate team in San Jose, and all three are children of software engineers.
The first version of the company was not an AI business at all. It connected engineers in India with American firms looking for freelance coding help, and pivoted to AI training as that demand appeared. Two years separated the drop-out from the ten-figure valuation.
Chairman since October 2025
Midha became chairman of Mercor's board in October 2025, the same month as the Forbes ranking, and holds about 22% of the company. The three founders' stakes are roughly comparable, which is why they arrived at billionaire status together rather than one at a time.
As with his co-founders, the wealth is a stake in a private company priced by its latest round, not money in an account. Anyone reading this page later should check the current valuation before repeating the figure.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: the Forbes ranking of 30 October 2025; Midha's position as Mercor's board chairman from that month; his roughly 22% stake; the $10 billion valuation and $350 million Series C; Georgetown and the 2023 drop-out; the San Jose debate-team origin; and the company's pivot from freelance engineering to AI training.
Not documented here: his date of birth, beyond the reported two-month margin that makes him the youngest of the three; his family; any personal statement in his own words; and any holdings outside Mercor. The birth year on this page is derived from his reported age of 22 in late 2025.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elisabeth Anisimow | United States | Living paintings sold at 11 for $2,500-$5,000 each | Age 11 |
| Carmel Bechler | Israel | Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 | Age 16 |
| Andrea Dominizi | Italy | A beetle in the corner of the frame, logging machinery behind it, and a wo | Age 17 |
| Surya Midha | United States | Co-founding Mercor; youngest of the world's three youngest self-made… | Age 20 |
| Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | Germany | Winning Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Named by Forbes among the world's three youngest self-made billionaires at 22 (30 October 2025)
- Youngest of the three co-founders by about two months
- Board chairman of Mercor since October 2025, holding about 22% of the company
- Left Georgetown in 2023; met his co-founders on a San Jose high-school debate team
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Date of birth is not published; the birth year here is an estimate
- The billionaire status rests on a private valuation that can move in either direction
- No direct quotations from Midha appear in the sources used here
Questions people ask about Surya Midha
How old is Surya Midha?
Forbes reported him as 22 in October 2025 and as the youngest of the three founders by about two months. No date of birth appears in these sources.
What is Surya Midha's role at Mercor?
Board chairman, a position he took in October 2025. Brendan Foody is chief executive and Adarsh Hiremath is chief technology officer.
What is his net worth?
Forbes ranked him among the world's youngest self-made billionaires, based on a roughly 22% stake in a company valued at $10 billion. The stake is private and not cash.
What does Mercor do?
It pays skilled professionals to train AI models for clients including OpenAI and Meta, at rates reported up to $200 an hour.
Where did he study?
Georgetown, which he left in 2023 along with his co-founders.
Is Surya Midha Indian?
The sources used here describe him as an American founder and a child of software engineers, and do not go further into his family background.
Is Surya Midha on Wikipedia?
He has no article of his own in this record; searches lead to Wikipedia's article on Mercor.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Surya’s story?
What position does Surya Midha hold at Mercor?
By how much is he the youngest of the three founders?
Which university did he leave in 2023?
Sources
- These 22-Year-Olds Are Now The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaires — Forbes, 2025-10-30
- San Francisco's youngest billionaires are betting on a new kind of job boom — The San Francisco Standard, 2025-11-07
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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