These 22-year-olds are the youngest self-made billionaires of all time – they have dethroned Mark Zuckerberg.

The three founders met in high school – now they run a $10 billion startup. Who they are, what they do, and how it all came about.

At just 22 years old, Adarsh ​​Hiremath, Brendan Foody, and Surya Midha have made history. As Forbes reports , the three founders of Mercor, an AI-based recruiting startup from San Francisco, are now the youngest self-made tech billionaires of all time after a funding round that valued them at ten billion dollars – younger than Mark Zuckerberg was at his debut at 23.

According to Forbes, the three friends met on a high school debate team in the Bay Area before founding Mercor in 2023. The startup originally set out with the mission of connecting Indian engineers with US companies. However, the service has since evolved into an AI-powered recruiting platform where applicants can conduct job interviews with AI avatars. They are then automatically matched with suitable companies.

Since then, the startup has grown rapidly: As Forbes reports, annualized revenue in March 2025 was still at $100 million. Today, however, the company generates $500 million annually. The latest funding round reportedly raised $350 million, led by Felicis Ventures, Benchmark, and General Catalyst. Each founder holds approximately 22 percent of the company – that's roughly $2.2 billion per person.

All three founders were part of the Peter Thiel Fellowship program . Hiremath also dropped out of college for the startup, leaving Harvard after two years. "The crazy thing for me is that if I weren't working at Mercor, I would have just graduated from college a few months ago," he told Forbes.

Mercor's story demonstrates how quickly billion-dollar companies can emerge in the AI ​​age . At the same time, it raises questions about the sustainability of such valuations. Mercor will undoubtedly be one of the most exciting companies to watch in 2025.

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