capital · May 21, 2026

Surya Midha Rises to World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire via Mercor at $10 Billion Valuation

Surya Midha co-founded Mercor with Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath and reached $10 billion valuation in the October 2025 Series C round. Each of the three holds an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion on the 2026 Forbes Billionaires list. Mercor manages more than 30,000 contractors and pays over $1.5 million daily at average rates of $105 per hour for AI training work. Clients include OpenAI and Google DeepMind with some experts paid up to $350 per hour. Midha dropped out of Georgetown University in spring 2023 after a São Paulo hackathon idea that evolved into the current AI platform.