Adarsh Hiremath is an American entrepreneur of Indian origin who, in October 2025, was recognized as one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires at just 22 years old. His family originally hails from Karnataka, India.

Hiremath attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where he was a standout on the policy debate team. He later enrolled at Harvard University to study computer science and served as a research assistant in macroeconomics to Larry Summers. He eventually dropped out of Harvard during his sophomore year to pursue entrepreneurship as a Thiel Fellow.

• Core Company: Mercor (AI Recruiting Platform).
• Age Milestone: Became a billionaire at 22, surpassing the age record set by Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.
• Education: Harvard University dropout; Thiel Fellowship recipient.

Adarsh Hiremath's career began in his college dorm room where he co-founded Mercor in 2023 alongside school friends Brendan Foody and Surya Midha. Mercor initially launched as a platform to connect Indian tech talent with U.S. startups but rapidly evolved into a sophisticated AI-driven recruiting powerhouse.

As the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Hiremath led the development of Mercor’s “human-in-the-loop” model, which utilizes over 30,000 global experts to train and refine AI systems. By September 2025, the company reached $500 million in annualized revenue, and a subsequent funding round valued the startup at $10 billion.

• Role: Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
• Innovation: Developed an AI platform that automates high-quality data annotation and domain-specific talent vetting.