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Defying Odds: 5 Indian Americans in Forbes Self-Made 250
The list features Indian Americans Jay Chaudhry, Hemant Taneja, Raj Sardana, Sundar Pichai and Shyam Sankar
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Fri, 10, Apr 2026
- 04:08 EDT
- 35
Jay Chaudhry, Hemant Taneja, Raj Sardana, (bottom) Sundar Pichai and Shyam Sankar / Forbes and Shyam Sankar website
Forbes published the list of 250 greatest self-made Americans, featuring 5 Indian Americans, on April 9.
Forbes measured all the greatest achievers of the United States and compared them on the metrics financial success, obstacles overcome and enduring impact. The list features rags-to-riches billionaires, pioneering scientists, Supreme Court justices and numerous others whose wealth is measured in impact and influence and not just money.
Each entrant was scored out of 10, quantifying the “distance traveled” by each individual. Only those who scored nines or perfect tens made the cut, thereby excluding those who started with a big head start.
ALSO READ: Forbes 30 under 30 2026: Full list of Indian-American achievers
The list features five people whose roots can be traced back to India, each making a significant mark in American history.
Jay Chaudhry
Chaudhry, the CEO of Zscaler, a cybersecurity firm he founded in 2008, comes in at the 47th rank in the list of American all-time greats.
Jay Chaudhry, the tech billionaire and founder of Zscaler, grew up in a remote village in India with no electricity or running water — a detail highlighted by Forbes that underscores his remarkable upward mobility.
Chaudhry moved to the United States in 1980 to pursue graduate studies and later relocated from the Bay Area to Nevada, where he now resides.
Hemant Taneja
Ranked a few positions below the Zscaler CEO, Taneja is placed 53rd on the list. Forbes highlighted Hemant Taneja’s remarkable journey, noting that the venture capitalist immigrated from India at age 15 and worked full time during high school to help support his family.
Taneja presently serves as CEO of the venture capital firm General Catalyst, managing $36 billion in assets. Born in Delhi, Taneja moved to the United States at the age of 15.
Raj Sardana
The IT billionaire, Sardana, boasts another rags-to-riches tale. He grew up in a government-provided one-bedroom house and came to the United States’ Georgia Tech in the 1980s with $100.
He is the founder and CEO of Innova Solutions, an IT services firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Sardana is currently worth $2 billion. Sardana ranks 85th on the list.
Sundar Pichai
The CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, replacing Google cofounder Larry Page in 2019, Pichai is perhaps the most famous self-made Indian American on the list.
Pichai has shared that his father had spent a year’s salary on a plane ticket to California so Pichai could attend Stanford, in 1993, which explains his self-made title.
Pichai ranks 142nd on the list.
Shyam Sankar
244th on the list and ranked above Shark Tank fame billionaire Barbara Corcoran and TV personality and businesswoman Martha Stewart, is Shyam Sankar.
Sankar is the chief technology officer of the Denver-based software company Palantir. Forbes noted that the top executive was born to immigrant parents whose dry cleaning business went bankrupt. He is currently worth over $1 billion.
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