Meet the richest Indian-American who grew up in village without electricity, water; not Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Meet the richest Indian-American who grew up in village without electricity, water; not Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella")
Jay Chaudhry, the founder of Zscaler. Photograph: (LinkedIn)
He founded Zscaler in 2008, a cybersecurity firm, which went public in March 2018. He draws most of his net worth from his ownership in the Nasdaq-listed firm.
Jay Chaudhry, an alumnus of IIT BHU, has emerged as the wealthiest Indian-American in the United States, with a net worth exceeding $17.9 billion. This fact was revealed in a list of America's Richest Immigrants 2025, which was compiled by Forbes. The magazine noted that the tally of immigrant billionaires rose from 92 in 2022 to 125 in 2025, including Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella.
"These American immigrants are worth a record $1.3 trillion combined and hold 18% of America’s $7.2 trillion in total billionaire wealth,” Forbes noted. With 12 billionaires, India topped the list, followed by Israel (11), Taiwan (11), and China (8).
Who is Jay Chaudhry?
Jay Chaudhry, 65, completed his Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU. He travelled in a plane for the first time in 1980, when he moved to the United States to pursue an engineering and management master's program at the University of Cincinnati. He now lives in Reno, Nevada.
He founded Zscaler in 2008, a cybersecurity firm, which went public in March 2018. He draws most of his net worth from his ownership in the Nasdaq-listed firm.
Jay Chaudhry and his family own around 40 per cent of Zscaler.
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Before Zscaler, Jay Chaudhry founded four tech companies -- SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust, and AirDefense -- all of which were acquired.
Chaudhry started their startupjourney in 1996, when he and his wife, Jyoti, pooled their savings and started SecureIT.
He was born in a village in India. According to reports, he grew up in a village that had no electricity or running water until Class 10. Despite the hardships, he has emerged as the richest Indian-American.