Surya Midha is an American technology entrepreneur of Indian origin, who, in October 2025, became the youngest self-made billionaire in history at age 22. Born in Mountain View and raised in San Jose, California, Midha was a high-school superstar, co-founding Mercor with childhood friends Adarsh Hiremath and Brendan Foody.

A standout at Bellarmine College Preparatory, he was the first person in history to win all three major national tournaments in policy debate in a single year. He later enrolled at Georgetown University to study international relations and math but dropped out in 2023 to follow his entrepreneurial ambitions.

• Core Company: Mercor (AI Recruiting Platform).
• Education: Georgetown University dropout; salutatorian of Bellarmine Prep.
• Award: Named a Thiel Fellow in March 2024.

Surya Midha's career is defined by the meteoric rise of Mercor, which he co-founded in 2023 to automate the vetting of high-quality human talent using AI.

As the original Chief Operating Officer (COO), he led the company's early scaling, bootstrapping the firm to a seven-figure run rate before securing backing from General Catalyst and Peter Thiel. In October 2025, after Mercor reached $500 million in annualized revenue, a new funding round valued the company at $10 billion, officially making 22-year-old Midha a billionaire. He subsequently transitioned to the role of Chairman of the Board.

• Role: Co-founder and Chairman of the Board.
• Strategic Milestone: Reached a $10 billion valuation in under two years.